Halo: Fireteam Crimson SYOC
by TheLooneyBin
Summary: A story of the adventures of Fireteam Crimson, featuring... You! All character slots have been filled, but I am now accepting SPARTAN OC's for the next story in this series, three of the slots are filled, so hurry before you miss your chance! PM me if you're interested.
1. Ardent

_**First I need to thank Necro-Knight Nate for having such an amazing concept that I was inspired by, I will try to keep the similarities to a minimal between the two. Check out his story, Chronicles of Crimson. Thanks for reading and enjoy!**_

I sat in the pelican for what seemed like days, awaiting my arrival to infinity. I was to be reassigned onboard and given a fireteam to work with. i was surrounded by some gawking Marines, all chatting about the lone SPARTAN sitting in their pelican. I looked briefly out of the porthole and quickly looked away. Space made me anxious. I was so large and vast, so many things undiscovered and unsure of. I liked to know what i was looking at, when I looked out there I got nothing.

Ah, but where are my manners, my name, is Sam Thomas. Though most only know me by my callsign, Ardent. I'm not the superstitious type, but I have an odd feeling about his assignment, something unexpected, unusual maybe. It may just be my nervousness of course. The pelican lurched slightly forward as we proceeded into the hangar, one marine fell over in front of me, summoning a laugh across the entire back of the hovercraft. The pelican landed and the bay door opened, allowing exit. the marines filed out, I myself taking up the rear. I was greeted by a friendly male voice from somewhere to my right.

"Hello Spartan, welcome aboard!" said the cheerful voice as I turned to greet it.

"My name is Roland, I'm the on board A.I., I control pretty much everything you're seeing here. involving the ship of course." He said exuberantly.

I looked around for a moment before returning to him, "Hi I'm-" I was cut by the small yellow A.I. clad in an old Earth pilot's uniform, were I to take a guess. He seemed alright so far.

"You must be Sam, correct?" He asked

"That's me." I responded, anxious to meet my new fireteam already.

"Well Sam, it seems you are quite the Spartan. You have, after all, been chosen to lead five of them." he said, looking at me with a look of what seemed like pride.

I was taken aback by his statement, I had been told that I was going to be coming here to meet my new fireteam, I was never told I was the leader. I shifted slightly, now a bit uncomfortable. Roland seemed to pick up on this.

"Didn't tell you did they?" he sighed, "They never do, but anyways, I'm sure you'll do fine. Head to the your cabin right now, you'll meet your new squad soon.

A marine walked up, handed me a datapad, and walked off just as quickly as he had come. I looked at the pad, it stated that data was being received. I looked up at Roland questionably.

"I'm sending you the layout of the ship, it's a pretty big ship so we wouldn't want you getting lost." He said with a sly smile.

I chuckled at his under exaggerated statement, this ship was more than pretty big. It was gargantuan. One of the only warships in its class. It was a fine piece of work, some would even call it art.

I looked down at my datapad, it contained information on all of my squad members, which I would look at later. Right now I needed to look at the map, it already had a red line from where I was to my cabin, I thanked Roland before walking off in that direction.


	2. Fallen

I walked the hall for what seemed like an hour. I was still following the little red line that was guiding me to my cabins. It was getting slightly aggr-

A shrill high pitched scream burst into my ears and suddenly my body was slung sideways and into the wall. When I regained my ability to comprehend what was going on, I was being held against the wall by a tiny, 6' tall SPARTAN, even with her armor on. She had no helmet, and she had an emotion painted across her face between fear and anger. She slowly realized what she was doing and let go of me.

"I-I'm sorry, I just-I don't like when people touch me." she stuttered, obviously embarrassed at her outburst but quickly regaining her composure.

I looked down at my datapad and scrolled through my squad members, she in fact, was one of them. I looked down at the stats on her, her two mismatched black and violet eyes looking back at me. She was a scary figure to be seen, with a scar that started above her left eye and finishes off at the right of her chin. She had a defined face, pointed chin. her mouth seemed to always be drawn up in a half scowl because of her scar. Her name was Jasmine Forest, standing at a mere 5' 9", and weighing in at 136 pounds, or 62 kilos. Her hair ran down to the back of her knees, as of right now it must have been tucked down the back of her Infiltrator chestplate.

As I was looking at my datapad I would look back up at her every now and then, her eyes were cold, staring at me, determining...something. Her nicnkname might be explained a bit by this.

I finally addressed her, "Fallen?" I asked, knowing this was her, but still asking out of habit.

She stared at me and gave a small nod, looking me over. To look at my face she would have to look upwards, my 6' 6" form towering over her by an entire 6 inches. She finally stuck out her hand tentatively, seeming as if she really didn't want to.

I took it and shook lightly, not knowing what would happen were I to grip her hand. She seemed grateful of this.

"Well Fallen, I'm your fireteam leader, Sam. Or you can call me Ardent." I said, expecting her to be surprised that she was looking at her fireteam leader.

Instead she responded with, "I know"

It was my turn to be taken aback. Was I the only person that didn't know I was going to be a leader? I suppose so.

A voice startled me out of me thoughts, "by the way, when we aren't in the field you can call me Jasmine. Or by what most call me, Demon." she smiled a bit, almost unnoticeable but I saw it, she wasn't one for grand emotions I could see.

"Well Jasmine, nice to meet you, but I need to find my cabins, and then the rest of my fireteam on this godforsaken ship." I said with a chuckle

"I could help, I know my way to the cabins, and our HUD's are already synced, so i can show you to the team." She stated casually, I eagerly accepted her offer.

She walked away, gesturing to follow, and so, we were off.

Well guys, one down! This is Jasmine, nickname demon, callsign Fallen. That leaves four spots left! Ready set go!

Anyways, I'm having great fun writing this, and I hope you all are having a good time reading it. Have a good one y'all!

~TheLooneyBin~


	3. Crow

Me and the silent Jasmine strode through the halls, marines, crew members, and anyone else parting like the Red Sea as we passed. She turned left, I followed, she turned right I followed, up an elevator, through some doors, a few more turns and then we stopped.

She turned to look at me before speaking, "You might want to introduce yourself to another part of your fireteam." she pointed to her left, I turning my head to follow, saw a large tanned man with black hair covering either side of his face.

"That's Crow, you should really get to know him yourself." she said,and I was happy to oblige.

I walked over to where he stood, leaning over a computer terminal. he huffed and ran a hand through his wiry black hair, pushing it aside and allowing him to see me in his peripherals.

A very gruff and deep voice resounded off of the walls as he stood to full height and spoke, "Hello there fellow SPARTAN, I assume you are the one they call Ardent?" he asked, raising an eyebrow on his tanned and sun wrinkled face.

I nodded before replying, "That would be me, I assume you're Crow then?"

He nodded as well, smiling a bit. I scrolled through his profile, seeing he was only 21. He almost looked like a few more years could have made him 40. His real name was Shikoba Muscowequan, ironic, being that his first name meant feather, he was anything but. He stood at 6' 9", shoulder to shoulder with Commander Palmer. He was huge, he had muscles in places there weren't supposed to be muscles. He seemed to know this, but was oddly humble about it.

"I see you have met the tiny she-devil then?" he asked, with a smile directed toward Fallen

I chuckled a bit, Fallen growling at him like an animal, "Yes I've met her, feisty one she is." I responded with another chuckle, getting one in return from Crow, his body rocking with every laugh. Fallen just sighed and leaned back against the wall, defeated.

Crow talked with a sort of wisdom that seemed like it would have taken years longer to acquire, yet he seemed to… fit, with the wisdom. He was an odd character, seeming a little too peaceful for a soldier. Though I'm sure that would change.

"Where are you going Ardent?" Crow asked.

"Call me Sam, and I was headed to my cabin."

"Why would you go to your cabin when you can meet the rest of your squad?" He asked with a sly grin, and I didn't really have an answer for the question.

I smiled and responded, "Lead the way."

"Gladly." Crow said before turning away from the computer and walking into the hall.

"Where is the rest of the team?" I asked, genuinely confused as to why they were so scattered about, Jasmine answered for me.

"Either War Games or the Mess, that's really all I could think that they would be doing."

"Classy" was my sarcastic response, once again being lead away in this huge ship.

My stay here was apparently going to be a long one, i thought over what Jasmine had said one more time before asking a question, "War Games?"

Jasmine looked at me with a malicious smile, "Oh this is going to be fun."

What had I gotten myself into.

Alright guys that's two down three to go! Meet Shikoba Muscowequan, otherwise known as Crow. He's Native American influenced and straight form the mind of Da Goff Rokka! I forgot to credit the person who came up with Fallen so here they are, Dragonwait!

Only three more entries being accepted! Hurry up and take em'!

~TheLooneyBin~


	4. Dragon and Phoenix

I walked through the halls of infinity, leaded by the hulk of a man, Crow, and the tiny terror Fallen. We were going to something called the "war games." They say it accounts for most of the entertainment value on this ship. Fallen wouldn't tell me what they were, said it would "ruin the surprise." Whatever that meant. We turned down another hall and came to a terminal, above the terminal, in big bold letters were the words "War Games Viewport." Fallen smiled and pressed a button on the terminal, a holographic projection of a battlefield appearing in front of the terminal, a screen on the wall ahead. It showed a battleground with two oppositely colored SPARTANs, fighting one another.

"Why are they fighting?" I asked, worriedly.

Crow responded with, "For fun of course, it is a simulator."

That was a relief. The bottom left of the screen said a few words, time, date and something else. Ragnarok. It was a strange word, no idea of its origin I asked no questions.

Fallen hit another button on the terminal and the screen changed to the helmet cam of an individual SPARTAN, she did this a few times before reaching a specific one. In the bottom right it stated, Nikolas Hall, "Dragon" I watched as he layed on the crest of a hill looking down on an enemy base. he looked to his left at another SPARTAN, laying down as well. A small square encapsulated his head, words running off to the side, they stated, Jordan Wolffe "Phoenix" The two seemed to know each other.

"Dragon" nodded to Phoenix, who did in turn. He stood and jumped off the ledge, a flamethrower appearing on the cam. He ran straight toward the enemy base, a mad cackle sounding from inside his visor. He ran toward a side door, a blue SPARTAN that was about to make his way out jumping in surprise and attempting to draw his battle rifle. Too late. A foot planted firmly into his chest, making him fly back, Nikolas's flamethrower came up and scorched the now prone SPARTAN, an echo of a scream coming from the char. The red SPARTAN responsible stepped over his still lit body, walking deeper into the base. he drew a shotgun and blasted a poor soldier coming around the corner, his body flying back and hitting someone else, the Dragon stepped on the two bodies and stuck the barrel of his shotgun into the face of the one still alive, and squeezed. All three of us cringed as he looked up and saw a blue flag waving in a nonexistent wind. Phoenix rounded the corner and nodded at Dragon. The both walked up to the flag, grabbed it, and raised it up. A loud ringing filled the air as the game was declared over. Red team claiming a victory.

I turned to Fallen, "I want to play."

"In due time Ardent." she replied.

Doors to our left and right opened, allowing lines of SPARTANs file out of each side. I recognized Phoenix's armor even without it's red overlay and stopped him and another soldier that he was talking to.

"Dragon and Phoenix correct?" I asked, receiving a nod from both of them.

"Damn good job out there." I said, both of them straightening up a bit.

"Glad to hear it sir, seeing as you'll be leading us both into battle soon enough." said Phoenix

A smile crept across my face, "Amazing how that'd be so."

Dragon laughed, he had the laugh of a Russian, and the tenacity to fit one.

"Local Pyro I presume?" I asked Dragon.

"Yes, that is me." he said proudly Russian accent obvious now.

"And Phoenix, what do you do?" I asked curiously.

"I'll be your infiltration and extraction expert sir." he said, a faint british accent able to be made out.

"Well I'm glad to have you two on the team, any idea where to find the rest of my team?" I asked.

They both nodded, and said in unison, "Mess Hall."

And once again I was being lead through the ship by people I had barely met, but would already trust my life with.

Hello there, I've decide I'm going to accept one more entry than expected, simply because of the fact that I'm enjoying writing them!

P.S. I am in dire need of a medic! Have a good one

~TheLooneyBin~


	5. Meteor and Athena

Infinity, I realized, was actually better than what they all made it out to be. There were soldiers having a good time, playing ping pong. Drinking a little bit of that contraband alcohol we all knew they had. Everyone acted as if Infinity would be, well, boring. So far, I was enjoying myself.

We arrived at the mess hall, and I was expecting to go to a table to find one of my SPARTANs sitting there, but Dragon and Phoenix both kept walking, right into the kitchen. When I followed them in and saw a 6' 5" man, standing at a stove, I would say I was a bit surprised.

He was no ordinary man, he had a very light shade of pink to his hair, he wore a yellow dress shirt, unbuttoned, with a loose pink tie. His black undershirt matched his pants and shoes. His eyes were a dull, almost brass yellow, and his hair was deliberately styled into a fauxhawk. He acknowledged me for a moment before bending down and taking something out of the oven in front of him. He seemed Japanese. Or Asian at least, though which country I couldn't tell, I pulled up my datapad to see about him and… nothing. Nothing but a picture. I mean sure the others had a few black lines over confidential information and such but it looked as if they had just dumped the whole bottle of ink on his sheet. I swiped up and down and all I got out of all of the lines crossed out were his name and callsign.

"Got nothing on him did you?" whispered Jasmine.

"No, you got anything on him?" I whispered back

"Eh, a bit."

"Well why don't you tell me, little devil." I smiled and she punched my arm, scowling at me.

"Fine, but don't call me a little devil again." she pouted before continuing, "His name is Silas something another, I can't pronounce his name bu-"

"Minatra?" I asked, smirking at her.

"yeah that."

"You can't pronounce Minatra?"

"Shut up."

"If you two are done whispering about me, I would love to be introduced to my new leader." said Silas, both of us jumping a little startled.

"Sorry about that" I said before walking over to shake his hand, "I just don't really have that much on you."

He shook my hand in a bone crunching grip, he had the muscle of a brute, but not the body to fit one, "Well my name, is Silas, most call me Sil. On the field though, they call me meteor." He spoke a little fast, almost rushing through every word.

"Meteor?" I questioned.

"Named after how I throw a punch." He smiled deviously.

"So you're a hand to hand guy?"

"If I have to, I'm more of a medic myself."

I noticed a girl come out of the door behind him and walk over to the casserole he had put on the stovetop while me and Jasmine had been talking.

"Smells good Silas, as always." she smiled as she saw me, she had a soft and smooth smile, she seemed almost motherly in a way, "and you must be Sam."

I nodded, "That's me alright, you are?"

"My name is Kathryn, most of the people around here call me Kate though."

"Well Kate, nice to meet you." I didn't want to make the assumption that she was on my squad, she seemed to nice, and she was unarmored. She didn't look like a fighter either, but hey, don't judge a book by its cover and all that jazz.

"Are you uh, part of Fireteam Crimson?" I asked.

She smiled warmly again, "Why yes I am, I'll be your sniper support throughout the battles."

I was a little surprised by this, this sweet, high pitched british girl, handling a high powered sniper? It was comical to think about.

"And don't you dare think I can't, Silas here knows."

Silas shuddered a bit "Do not, piss her off."

I wondered what she could ever do that would be so bad to scare Silas, so of course I was curious, "And what exactly would she do?"

There was my first mistake in this Fireteam. In mere seconds I had a 6'2" SPARTAN girl within inches of my visor, unarmored herself, and she had a kitchen knife right next to uh...let's just say any male on the face of this planet would NOT want to get stabbed there. That was the only lucky thing about this entire situation.

"I could show you." she said with an evil giggle, she pulled back the knife and put it back in her apron, "nah, I'm just messing with you, I have no idea how use that thing.

Everyone around me was chuckling, even one of the marines that had happened to see the incident as he walked by. I silenced him with a stare.

Silas said while still chuckling. "You realize that we were kidding with you right? We don't want to get in trouble. Yet."

Everyone got a good laugh out of this. I realized finally that I had found my team, it had only just now hit me. I looked around at each member of my team.

The reserved and dangerous pilot, Jasmine.

The heavy weapons specialist, and local spiritual leader, Crow.

Nikolas, the pyromaniac Russian with a laugh that could shake a building.

Phoenix, the stealthy and quick Infiltration artist.

Silas, the quick talking, brightly colored medic.

Kathryn, the outgoing, perfectionist sniper.

And me. The clueless leader.

I began to giggle along with them, and soon we were all laughing.

That's the squad ya'll. Not accepting anymore OC's but continue reading and eventually I might even change my mind! Well, let's go over it all now.

Jasmine: Dragonwait

Crow: Da Goff Rocka

Dragon: Renegade Saint

Phoenix: Ragemachine1227

Silas: The infamous, Necro-Knight Nate!

Kathryn: Fen The Dragon

Ardent: Myself

Coming Soon: A.I. submissions!


	6. First Contact

I breathed in.

My heart was racing, eyes closed. The harness over my chest felt like it was tightening every second, my hands gripped the handles on the harness like a vice. You couldn't tell it through my visor, but I was terrified.

I breathed out.

"30 seconds to atmospheric reentry!" Yelled the pilot of the pelican.

I opened my eyes and saw everyone else holding on too, at least I didn't look nervous. I had a team counting on me to lead them. Most of them having more battle experience than me. I looked over at Fallen and gave her a slight nod, which she returned.

The pelican began to shake violently as we entered the atmosphere of the backwater planet that was under attack by covenant forces. We were to deploy on the front lines, dropping us off with a small marine squadron and moving to destroy some covenant generators to cut off communications. The pelican stopped shaking and the harnesses released as we broke through the atmosphere, down to the troposphere of the planet.

"Touchdown in 3!" came the voice of the pilot.

We stood, loaded guns in hand. The door dropped on the back of the pelican and I filed out, gun raised and kneeled at the bottom of the platform. Followed by Fallen, taking the left. Crow on the right, Phoenix and Dragon taking the inbetweens, Meteor and Athena standing over the tops of us. The Pelican's door closed with a good luck from the pilot and he left. we were left looking at 3 warthogs and 5 marines, who seemed to be waiting for us. They remained silent as we all stood and moved forward, more relaxed at the lack of enemies. There were enough warthogs for us all, which seemed to be planned. I jumped into the First hog, Phoenix jumped in the gauss hog, and Fallen on the rocket hog.

"Shotgun!" called out dragon, hopping into the passenger seat on my hog, the warthog sagging to the right for a moment.

Crow jumped on the .30 on the back of my hog, Athena took the gauss cannon, and Meteor gladly took the rocket turret.

Our squad looked good for the first mission we'd be taking, but we knew that was only half the battle. Hey, gotta look good.

Two marines occupied the spare passenger seats and we all gave an exchanging glance before Commander Palmer engulfed the top left of my HUD.

"Well Crimson, welcome to the front lines, your objective as you know is to take out these generators, sending coordinates now."

Several red diamonds showed up on my HUD, distances marked them each.

"I'll keep in contact throughout your mission, good luck out there team." the transmission cut.

"So we follow red dot yes?" asked Dragon.

"That's the plan." replied Crow from the gun. He must have been the most calm of us all, he said it was something to do with his meditation.

Dragon shrugged and propped his flamethrower on the top of the windshield, half standing in the seat.

"Well, let us go then." Dragon said.

I looked around at the other hogs, all of their drivers stared back.

"So uh… what's the plan Ardent?" asked Fallen from her seat in the rocket hog.

I thought for a moment, "Split up, one warthog goes left, one goes right, and one take the middle. Don't leave your warthog unless it's absolutely necessary."

She seemed satisfied with this, "I'll take right."

"left" I called out.

"So I've got middle then?" Phoenix rhetorically asked.

I sighed and hit the gas, wheels spinning before gaining traction in the sandy ground of this bright and desert like planet. Coming up in approximately 600 metres was the first generator, we had to take an elevated slope up, so we could actually see down on the battlefield, and see all of what the rest of the team was doing. I saw two warthogs dashing down their paths, dust flying in their wakes before turning my eyes back to the objective, now 100 metres.

"Contact!" yelled Crow, the .30 Cal coming to life.

The gun spit hellfire down on a few poor grunts, his turret swiveling to look at a jackal sniper on a hovering platform. The jackal took cover, hoping to escape its hail of bullets. the floating platform made a large boom, pieces of it falling off. Crow continued this for a few moments before the entire platform exploded, the jackal flying off to the right, down the incline.

I drew my magnum and took a few popshots at an elite off to the left before moving the warthog forward a bit. I whipped the tail end of the hog around, exposing the generator from its once covered position. Crow lit it up, the generator exploding in a quite spectacular fashion. We all cheered.

Dragon stuck his flamethrower out of the side of the hog and burned a charging elite before Crow could even swivel the turret. We all cheered again. I brought up a comm channel.

"One generator down, how are you guys coming along?"

"Doing good Chief!" said Phoenix excitedly.

"Good, how about you Fallen?"

"We've encountered heavy resistance but we're doing pretty good otherw- Oh shit! everybody bail! Bail! B-" the comm channel from Fallen fell silent.

"Fallen sitrep. Fallen come in." I said worriedly.

I breathed in

I jumped out of the hog, running over to the ledge to try and find them. I saw a burned and mangled warthog, its occupants missing. It came to a halt at the front bumper of a slightly damaged Wraith, it's cannon recharging.

I breathed out

"Jasmine!" I screamed into my helmet's microphone.

I saw the covenant near the warthog cheer before running forward.


	7. Spartans Never Die

I stared at the still burning shell of the warthog, propped against the Wraith. I couldn't believe it, it's not what I was seeing. I blinked, attempting to wake up.

A sudden tug on my arm spun me around, "We have to go now! We must help them Ardent!" screamed Dragon, Crow looking at me expectantly.

I bounced on my feet for a moment, turning swiftly and charging down the hill at full speed, I hit the bottom of the hill smoothly, gliding into the transition between slope and flat ground with trained precision, my legs using the momentum to run even faster. I sprinted through the crossfire in which Phoenix and Athena were caught in, Athena's gauss cannon spitting out lasers furiously at the enemy. I rolled past a plasma grenade that landed in front of me, dirt spraying up and over me from behind, my feet kept moving. The Wraith came into sight, the enemy unaware of the very angry SPARTAN charging them. I jumped, feet still kicking in midair before landing on the Wraith. I pulled a plasma grenade off of my side, primed it, and stuck it right down into the gunner's seat. I backflipped off of the front, flipping over the warthog wreckage and turning on my heels before sprinting in the direction craters in the sand where the warthog had hit. I drew my Battle Rifle and fired at the cheering enemy in front of me, they all turned towards me collectively, the grunts running scared before returning fire. I continued my suppressive fire, hitting my targets only so often, taking a few plasma shots as I rolled between rocks. The Covenant then turned away from me, firing back at a rock in which bullets were being fired from. The Covenant unit was caught in a crossfire.

I prayed to every divine god there was that it was Jasmine and Silas that were shooting back. I crawled behind another rock, closer to the line of elites, grunts and jackals. I once again opened fire, soon there were none left standing. I stood raising my gun triumphantly. I called out to the figure behind the rock.

"Hey! Meteor, Fallen, that you?" I yelled, hoping for a friendly face to pop up in return.

A marine popped her head out to the side of the rock, "Sorry, just me." she said with a cringe.

I ran over to her, kneeling next to her. I needed to find the rest of my team, but I noticed that her leg was bloodied and twisted at an awkward angle.

"Med-" I started to scream, realizing all too late that Meteor was in the crash, I muttered curses under my breath.

The marine went to move her leg and cringed again, I needed to find my squad, but I needed to help her first.

"Wait here." I said.

"Don't have much choice sir." she chuckled.

I walked off to find something to use as a crutch temporarily. I walked back to the warthog and now Wraith wreckage and looked inside of the warthog for anything useful. I reached in and grabbed what looked to be a straight piece of metal from the warthog, what I pulled out was a DMR. Fallen's DMR. I looked at it for a moment before returning to the marine.

"Use this for now." I said holding the gun out to her.

She smiled, taking it and standing, "Thank you sir, I think I'll live."

That was one thing I liked about these marines, their surprising amounts of optimism. I nodded at her, walking back to where the warthog initially was fired upon. I was walking along the divots before I looked over a bit and saw something glistening in the sand. I walked over to pick it up and held my breath as I looked into the visor of Fallen's helmet, she couldn't be far. There was a small outcropping of rocks, a small overhang surrounded by smaller rocks. I raised my gun and turned on my floodlights, walking up to the shadowed area and leaning against the exterior wall, ready to peek around. I swung my body around, gun raised and what I saw greatly relieved and concerned me. Fallen was sitting against the wall, one arm hanging limply at her side, another holding weakly onto an MA5B Assault Rifle. Lain across her lap was Meteor, unmoving, the floodlights on his helmet pointed toward the front of the outcropping, several grunts and jackals lay sprawled across the floor here. She swung the gun toward me before smiling.

"Took you long enough." she said.

I shook my head, "You can't do that to me, I thought you were dead!" I said, angry at nothing in particular, just angry.

She didn't take kindly to this, "Well I'm sorry to disappoint you." she said with a scowl.

I calmed myself a bit before speaking again, "Look I'm sorry, it's just that it's my first mission in the field, I'm nervous. Now let's get back in the fight soldier." I tossed her her helmet, which she gladly took, slipping it onto her head.

"Meteor is unconscious, we need to exfil him." she said, standing and throwing the limp SPARTAN over her shoulders.

"On it, the marine that was with you, she's hurt too." I said, typing in coordinates for a pickup location.

"Glad she made it out alright." Said Fallen.

A warthog's motor behind me caused me to turn around to a very wobbly driving job done by Nikolas. The warthog came to a jolting stop, Crow almost falling off of the back, he didn't seem very angry about it though.

"Generators 2, 3 and 4 are down." said Crow.

"Good only two left then." I said.

Dragon and Crow both nodded.

"Exfil will be on top of the hill right above us, ETA 10 minutes." I said to Fallen.

"I can work with that." she said, hefting the unconscious soldiers body farther onto her shoulders.

"Good, pick up that marine on your way out, get her back safe." I said, she nodded.

Phoenix pulled up beside Dragon much more skillfully, "Let's go ya'll Palmer is getting impatient."

I nodded, walking over to my original warthog, Dragon scooting into the passenger's seat and I taking the wheel. I spun the tires and whipped it around, taking off to the last two red diamonds.

The next few minutes were uneventful to say the least, we pulled up on the generators with little to no resistance. On our way back though was when he problems arose. Drop pods were coming in everywhere, Phantoms dropping in all kinds of troops. We swerved and weaved through them, making our way back to exfil hill, as we had so cleverly nicknamed it. Phoenix once was flipped over by a fuel rod cannon. The problem was swiftly dealt with.

"Ardent come in, this is Meteor." came a drowsy Meteor across the comms.

"Go ahead Meteor." I responded.

"Encountering heavy resistance on the hill, need immediate reinforcements" I heard the sound of a plasma bolt whiz by, "Exfil won't be here for another 5." He said.

"On the way" I cut comms with Meteor and opened one to Phoenix, "Phoenix, Fallen and Meteor are in trouble, we gotta go now."

"Understood, we are Oscar Mike, be there soon." he said.

I drove the warthog over to the hill, Phoenix already at the bottom, Driver missing and Athena still firing her gun. I slid the warthog up next to her, jumping out and running over to her.

"Sitrep!" I yelled at her over the sound of the Gauss Cannon.

"No casualties! Phoenix is at the top of the hill dealing with a pair of hunters, he could use your help!" she screamed back.

I needed no further instruction before running up the hill with Crow and Dragon in tow. I shot a jackal as we passed, getting an angle on his shield. We reached the top and saw what Chaos ensued. Two hunters bombarded a pile of rocks, both of their shields up. I gripped my last Plasma grenade before jumping on the back of the hunter and shoving it deep into its worm like back, priming it inside. I pushed off and watched as it struggled to get the grenade off, which was impossible at this point. I was painted in neon orange blood. The second Hunter turned to me, enraged. But was cut short as plasma bullets tore through his back as well. Fallen gave me the thumbs up from a Plasma turret off to the side. I returned the gesture before running to Phoenix's position. I saw Meteor and the marine both sitting there as well. Meteor worked furiously over the marine girl who was bleeding out of the corner of her mouth, a now dull needler crystal stuck through her breastplate. She had her teeth clenched in pain, a demonic sight seeing as the white teeth had been painted red by the blood in her mouth. Meteor made sure the wound was fine to be worked on before ripping out the crystal and placing a can of biofoam in the wound, squeezing out the quick forming sealant. The marine went to scream in pain but no sound came out. Phoenix fired over him, taking out an elite. Meteor then helped the girl stand, her leg put straight now, and the DMR wrapped to her leg, keeping it stiff. She held one arm around Meteor to keep her steady as they both fired in tandem with their weapons.

"This is Pelican Pilot Sixer-Nine, we are coming in for evac, ETA 30 seconds." came over the comms, a beautiful sound to be heard. The Pelican broke the horizon, coming over the red rock mountain and hovering just off of the side of the hill. The door lowered, touching down on the top of the hill.

"Let's go SPARTANs, we've gotta get outta here before stuff gets interesting." said the Pilot.

I motioned for everyone to get inside, Meteor radioing Athena while he helped the marine inside. I kneeed outside the Pelican, waiting until everyone was aboard. I then turned and filed inside with everyone else, signaling to the pilot we were all on, the door shut and we were lifted upwards, back towards infinity.

Well, I hope this long chapter satisfied your needs for now.


	8. Help is on the Way

The ride back to infinity was a long one. Meteor worked furiously over the marine girl, his head bobbing every now and then, Athena helped best she could, she wasn't extremely capable but capable enough. I heard tidbits of their conversation. I learned the girl was going to live, though she had a collapsed lung and a broken leg. The marine had passed out a few minutes ago while Meteor cleaned the gashes on her leg. He had moved up to the chestplate, taking the armor off and laying it aside as he moved to sterilize the wound above her right breast. They said she had been lucky.

I lowered my head in thought. I had gone on my first mission as a leader and completed it. But if that was a simple torch and run mission, what would happen in a major firefight? How would I be able to keep up with everything that happened. Fallen had her head leaned against the wall of the pelican, her Stalker helmet lying on the seat next to her. She had closed her eyes and breathed in and out calmly. If I hadn't known her any better than I did, I would have assumed she was asleep. I moved into the seat to her right, taking off my helmet and turning it to face me. I looked at my reflection in the sterling silver visor. My smooth, brown, shoulder length hair swept to the right of my face, just above my forest green eyes. I inspected the scar on the left of my chin, a bit of shrapnel from a grenade during live fire practice left me with this 2 inch scar looping under my chin. It had been forever since I'd actually looked at myself in a mirror. It had been a solid week since I'd taken my helmet off in front of anyone at all. Ever since I'd stepped off that pelican onto this forsaken ship.

I set my helmet in the seat to the right of me. When I turned to look at Fallen, she was already staring back. She was quiet, studying me. She looked at the scar on my chin and lingered there for a moment before looking into my eyes. She was taking in every detail. Just like she did about almost everything. She was a thinker, she needed to know all the details before making a decision. She seemed satisfied, knocking her head back against the wall once more.

I looked around, seeing Meteor and Athena still fretting over the marine. Phoenix was looking at a datapad and tapping away, and Dragon was taking apart his flamethrower in amazing speeds and putting it back together again.

The others all entranced in their activities, I turned to Fallen once more.

"Hey, you ok?" I whispered.

"I'm fine." she whispered back through gritted teeth.

I didn't push the issue any further.

The pelican lurched as we entered a docking bay, the Pelican setting down and the door falling open. Commander Palmer was already waiting for us.

"Good job Crimson, you got the job done. It wasn't pretty, but you did it." she said, watching us file out. Meteor holding the unconscious Marine in his arms. Palmer pointed at a large sign that stated infirmary.

He was off like a bullet, coming back a minute later without the girl. Palmer nodded and proceeded with talking to us.

"Well, seeing as you could use a little help in combat efficiency, we've assigned each of you an A.I. companion." she said with a smile, taking a box out from behind her back.

The box glowed with many different colors, all of them emitting form individual chips, similar to dogtags.

"Say hello to your new A.I.s Crimson team." said Palmer, proudly opening the box and grabbing the chips.

My chip glowed yellow, it felt warm, pleasant somehow. Athena's glowed in a fashion similar to a rainbow, the colors more sporadic though. Crow's glowed red, Phoenix's purple. Meteor's was red as well, Dragon's being a darker, maroon color. Fallen's chip glowed silver, a slight purple emitting from it, almost unrecognizable. We looked at the chips carefully. We had all seen them of course, being used by other SPARTANs and high ranking personnel, but we had no idea how to use them ourselves.

I looked at Palmer questionably, "Permission to speak freely sir?"

"Granted" she said in return.

"Uh… How do we use them?" I asked.

"There is a port on the back of each of your helmets, the chip will fit in. The neural implants you received during augmentation will help pair you to your A.I. Ardent, you have actually received a new model A.I. She has been in service for a week now. Fallen and Phoenix, your A.I. are both 2. Dragon, yours is 2 and a half. Meteor yours is 3. Athena 5, and Crow, your A.I. is 7." she said.

I was surprised by this. I looked down at my chip. I now held the responsibility of another teammate. I also was trusted with the newest A.I. I came to Infinity expecting a fireteam, and I guess that's what I got. I slipped off my helmet and pushed the chip into the port on the back. It slid in perfectly. The glow went away. I slipped my helmet back on slowly. As it locked onto my shoulder armor I felt the cold rush of mercury flood my brain. I was flashed with brief memories of a marine, an old Earth marine, fighting in a desert, another memory of a hospital, and other memories that flashed by. Suddenly in the top left of my HUD appeared a soft faced girl.

The girl brushed a few strands of hair from her face, and with a voice deep and smooth she spoke, "Hello Sam, I'm Sarah. It looks like we're gonna be working together from now on."


	9. Lilith Kudo

My name is Lilith Kudo. I am a Corporal in the UNSC Marine Corp. I have recently been on a joint operations mission with several SPARTANs. I don't remember much after that. A big fight, some pain. Something about falling meteors? I don't know. All I know now is that my chest really hurts, it's hard to breathe, and I'm laying down in a bed. The ceiling is stark white, pretty cold in here too. The lights are all blindingly bright. I must be in an infirmary. I slowly sat up, looking down at my arm. I had an IV in my arm, still dressed in my standard issue underclothes. There was a hole in my shirt, just above my right breast. It hurt, a lot. I looked down at it. Underneath was a bandage, soaked in blood. There were two doctors coming down the hall, talking to each other. I slipped quietly back down and pretended to be asleep. As they walked closer I could hear one of them mention my name.

"Yeah she's not looking good, puncture of the right lung, inches away from the heart. Shrapnel from the projectile is lodged next to her heart and we can't get it out without serious damage." said one of the doctors.

That couldn't be good.

"Would she be fine if it were to be left alone?" asked the other.

The other doctor sighed, "I wish that would work, but too much movement could jam it into some vitals, including her heart."

That really couldn't be good. I suddenly regretted my decision to sit up earlier.

The doctors continued their chat, "Well, could we use a magnet to draw it-"

"No, to risky, the slightest movement in the wrong direction could kill her."

"We could…" said the second doctor

"We could what James, what can we do?!" asked the other doctor, obviously frustrated.

"We could attempt an augmentation." said James, he seemed uncomfortable with the words that had just spilled from his lips.

It was the craziest thing I'd heard all day, and maybe one of the craziest things I'd ever heard.

"That… that actually might work! James you're a genius!" the doctor grabbed a clipboard from the end of my bed and began reading it. He walked away with the clipboard, James remaining standing at the foot of my bed.

I waited until the older balding man left, leaving the younger, dark haired James standing in the room, shifting on his feet in the lab coat he wore. I opened my eyes fully now, blinking a bit as the lights blinded me once more.

James ran his hands together a few times, turning around. As he spun he must have seen me looking at him, because he jumped, turning back towards me. I continued to look at him for a moment before he scurried out of the room, leaving me to think about what he had just said.


	10. Artificial Intelligence

I recoiled slightly at the sudden appearance of the girl's face. She chuckled at this, a beautiful sound. She'd said her name was Sarah, so now not only did I have another team member to look after. I had another personality to look after, something to get attached to. Something worth fighting for, and something that I'd lose my life for. She stared at me, her head slightly lopsided. I looked around at the others, all of them obviously experiencing the same thing I was.

I finally spoke, "I see you've already gotten some information on me?" I asked.

"I've gotten the basics, yes. Name, Callsign, age, weight, etc." she responded.

I was expecting this, though I wasn't expecting her to be so lively. She always had this crooked grin on her face. Her head was covered by a camouflaged hat, similar to that worn by the marines whilst off duty. Her face was defined, yet somehow still soft. She seemed like someone a child would want as their mother. She had a smooth, calming voice, not unlike that of Jasmine's. Her skin, hair, eyes and hat alike were all glowing yellow. She appeared to be the same color of the A.I. that first greeted me to Infinity, Roland.

Palmer spoke again, "Why don't you all introduce your A.I. There's a holopedestal right over there. Now I have to be on my way. You guys have fun." she said with a smile before walking away.

We all looked at the holopedestal and then back to each other. We all walked towards it, crowding around it. We stood over the pedestal and looked around at each other once more.

"Ardent, why don't you go first." said Silas, his midnight visor disappearing and revealing his face and pink, dishevelled hair.

The others all agreed, reasoning that I was the leader.

"Go ahead Sam, I'm dying to say hello to everyone." said Sarah with a smile.

I removed my helmet hesitantly and removed Sarah's chip. I once again glowed with a deep yellow light. I inserted the chip into the pedestal in front of me and watched as the middle of the pedestal grew yellow, and suddenly, there was Sarah. Her full forw stood at parade rest, a warm smile across her face. Her Marine's hat was matched with BDUs, though they were strangely different than the battle dress uniforms of the marines on board. Her straight hair fell down just past her shoulders, not exactly standard for a soldier, but I doubt that any commander would tell her to tie it back. She acknowledged everyone around the pedestal, all of them in awe. We had all seen A.I.s of course, just never had any for ourselves.

"Hello everyone. My name is Sarah. I've been assigned here to help in enemy detection and surveillance. You'll notice that each of your A.I's have different roles, almost like each of you. Do not be fooled into thinking that your A.I. is too different to be assigned to you, for they were specially picked for each and every one of you." she gestured at us all, "Now enough of me, time to meet the rest of your crew. Ardent?" she turned to look at me.

I removed her chip and placed it back into my helmet, placing it back on my head.

Jasmine was the next to step up, her silver glowing chip with a purplish hue emitted from it. She slipped the chip into the pedestal, waiting for another figure to appear. Suddenly, another SPARTAN, bathed in silver light, appeared on the pedestal. The strange purple remained, though almost indistinguishable from the silver, it was just enough. His helmet revealed no facial features, his visor reflecting our own image back at us.

He cleared his throat before speaking, "My name is Thadeus, I'll be your CQTA A.I. Or Close Quarters Tactical Advantage. I'll be giving you each advice on the tactics of the enemy and their most logical next move. I'll also be assisting in your hand-to-hand and CQC training courses."

His voice had a slightly southern accent to it, though you could also call him English were you to look deeply into his accent. He gave a swift bow before disappearing from the pedestal, Jasmine then pulling his chip.

Nikolas then stepped up to the platform, he as well removing his maroon chip and inserting it into the pedestal. An extremely attractive, petite women appeared on the pedestal, her hourglass figure covered by cargo pants, a tank top and half cloak. She looked around at us all, similarly to both Thadeus and Sarah.

She spoke softly and smoothly, a Russian accent obvious, "My name is Felicia, I will be your hacking A.I. responsible for most unlocking of doors and such."

She seemed nervous, a bit jittery maybe, but she seemed to try and keep that hidden.

Nik pulled her chip and inserted it back into his helmet.

Next up was Meteor. He slipped the chip out of his helmet and repeated the motions of those before him, a red projection appearing on the holopad. A man wearing a karate Gi, the sleeves missing, appeared on the pad. His arms looked as if they could have hit as hard as Meteor without the armor. His belt and headband waved in an unseen wind, his short hair rustling a bit. He placed a fist to his palm and bowed, returning to a standing position. I could hardly tell it, but he was Japanese, the hologram making his facial features a little hard to pick out.

He spoke with a deep and gruff voice, "My name is Lee, I will be your HVT and blindspot monitor, I'll be alerting you to targets that greater threats at the moment." he left it at that, bowing again before disappearing. Though it seemed as if his english may have been a bit broken.

Meteor pulled his chip, Phoenix sliding his in next. The pad glowed purple, a skinny man in a trenchcoat appearing. He looked sly, like someone you didn't want to be friends with in real life.

He smiled an evil looking smile before speaking, "G'day mates, I'll be yer stealth and infiltration artist, kind of like old Wolf 'ere, ain't that right mate?"

Phoenix sighed a bit before nodding his head.

"Ye-heh, we're all going to have a grand time blowin' up some covie bastards."

Phoenix yanked his chip, placing it back in his helmet. I could already tell Phoenix didn't like his pairing. Crow stepped to the plate next with his chip, colored similarly to Meteor's, and delicately placed it in the holopedestal. A red hologram of an old Earth british soldier appeared, a red beret sitting upon his head. He was by far the oldest of our A.I. in both ways. He was no younger than 80, his actual service time of 7 years, he was touching on rampancy. His camouflaged top was decorated with medals of all sorts.

He smiled before speaking, "I would shake each of you fine mens' hands and kiss each one of you ladies' knuckles were I able, but I'm afraid I'm just a projection."

He had a nice voice, a heavy London accent, he sounded like someone you'd like as a grandfather. He sounded wise, but also happy. For such an old man he was in great physical shape, he stood at parade rest, just like Sarah, his hands clasped behind his back. He wore a small smile across his face.

"Now I'll be another hacking asset of your team, though I do have a different priority. I hack the enemy's weapons and defenses to be turned against them" he gave a small chuckle, "that's always a riot. Until next time crimson." said the old man, Crow pulling him.

Athena was the last to walk up to the platform, her strange, rainbow colored chip sliding into the port. A lime green projection of a man appeared on the pedestal, a broad smile on his face. He was covered in normal civilian clothing, a jacket, t-shirt and jeans.

He spoke with a voice similar to that of Phoenix's, "Hello everyone, I'll be your communications relay and tactics coordination A.I., assisting you with things of the like on the battlefield. With a leader like this god knows you'll need it."

I was taken aback by this, as was everyone else. This seemed to be another rude A.I.

"Guys calm down, I'm just joking." he said, holding his hands up defensively.

Or maybe he was a joking A.I. Either way I didn't like him so far.

"Well this is awkward. I'm just gonna go." he said, and in a flash he was gone, athena yanking him out of the pedestal.

It was humorous how similar some of our A.I.s were to each other, some being exact opposites. Either way, now they were ours. And it was our job to take care of them. Or, to quote the most famous A.I. the world had ever known, it was our job to take care of each other.

Hi again! I'm having a lot of fun writing this story so far, and I'm hoping all of you are having just as much fun reading it. Also, leave in the reviews what you think is going to happen to Lilith. I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys think! Oh, and if you guys have any suggestions on what you'd like next chapter to be, please, by all means tell me!

Till next time,  
TheLooneyBin


	11. SPARTAN Status

Pain.

That's all I could feel. Agonizing pain running through my cold blood, itching at my skin, aching my muscles, gnawing at my bones, scratching at my very soul… It was unbearable. And then I felt my limbs feel as if they were being ripped from my body as they were forcefully elongated and enlarged. I felt a searing pain in my chest as my lung repaired itself, my organs became stronger, more bones and muscles and tendons all did the same. My skull was still aching from the surgery required for neural implants, but now it felt as if it was going to burst.. My skin grew paler, my hair grew longer, my eye colors changed. I clenched my teeth and attempted to bare the pain, a single, crimson tear falling down my left cheek. Then suddenly, it stopped. All my pain, all the agony, gone. I looked around and found myself in a familiar room. Yes, the augmentation room I'd been brought to. The breathing apparatus on my face prevented me from suffocating, were I to pass out. Though now all it served to do was obstruct my vision. A doctor walked up to me, removing the mask from my face. I recognized this doctor as the one who had suggested a first that I be augmented. He was taller than me, at 5' 10". That is, he was taller than me. As I stood from the table I found myself to stand 2" taller than the doctor, my muscles which had already been in good shape were now refined and athletic looking. I would have to say it too, My breasts were not looking bad either. I would have to throw out all of my old bras, but I wasn't too mad. I went from a C-Cup to D in mere moments. My hair fell down to my thighs, which I would have to fix later. My eyes were what seemed strange to me. I could see my reflection in the table's metallic surface. My right eye was Violet, my left one tinted Crimson. I wiped the single blood colored tear from my cheek and turned to the doctor, whom had some questions.

"Are you feeling ok Lilith?" he asked

"I'm feeling fine yeah." I said, a little sore but a needle rifle to the chest hurt a helluva lot more.

"That's good, no muscle aches or joint pains? Head cloudiness? Heart pains?" he asked

"No doc, I'm fine." I said, ready for the eggheads to leave me be.

"Alright, Lilith, you're done for today, we'll be back tomorrow to check on you, so you rest easy till then."

I nodded and waited till he had left the room. I looked at my newly acquired limbs, my skin a snow white color. I caught a glimpse of my hair falling onto my chest, over the now, extremely stretched T-Shirt I was wearing. It still had the raven tint to it. I grabbed the jumpsuit that had been left on the table for me. I stared at the jumpsuit for a few minutes, taking in the details of my new, SPARTAN, outfitting.

"Not a bad pull for my first mission." I mumbled to myself, imagining slipping into that jumpsuit instead of my BDU's for a mission. I wondered about my armor, my fireteam. I was worried.

I stared at the suit a bit longer in thought before walking out of the room and back to my cabins.


	12. The War Games

I looked to my right, seeing Dragon in his Pathfinder armor, glowing red visor on his venator helmet staring back at me. I looked to my left and saw Athena, her Gungnir's solid facemask showing no visor. I received a nod from each before crouching from my prone position and looking through the trees ahead of me. I was ankle deep in mud and dirty water, moss and muck stuck to all pieces of my armor. I wiped a piece of moss of of my visor before the other two stood up with me. Dragon had left his flamethrower behind, hesitantly, because of the water levels. He hoisted his shotgun from his back now, holding it tight to his side. Athena was walking with her Sniper Rifle held tightly to her chest. I myself was looking down the barrel of my Battle Rifle. In front of us was a hill, taken by Rogue members of the SPARTAN Force. We were to take them down. I trudged through the dense mud, avoiding the trees that grew out of the water, roots growing in odd fashions. The top of the hill became visible as we neared its base. Athena stuck to a tree on hr left, aiming up the hill with her rifle, Dragon pushed through the marsh to stand next to me. Suddenly Athena's rifle rang out.

"Contact!" she said, firing another round.

In response another round from a sniper rifle struck the tree next to her, taking a chunk out of the wood. I moved to a tree next to me Dragon was trying to slosh his way to a tree just to his right. That was, before a sniper's round pierced his helmet. He fell face first into the muck, the hole in his head bleeding profusely.

"Dragon!" we screamed simultaneously.

Athena began to fire madly, striking off four rounds and popping in another clip, I used the covering fire to grab Dragon and drag his body behind a tree, propping it up against the slick bark. I grabbed his shoulder and touched my forehead to his before moving up to the next tree. Athena continued her suppressive fire, keeping the enemy sniper pinned. The blue helmet of the SPARTAN popped up for a moment, a moment too much. Athena's high powered rifle struck him in the visor, his head whipping back as he fell. I took this moment of relief to charge as fast as I could to the base of the hill, diving to prone onto the slick upward slope. I began to crawl, slowly, up the hill, Battle Rifle trained on the top.

Athena's voice came over the comms, "I've got movement, 11 O'Clock."

I blinked my acknowledgement light green, signaling I had gotten the message and kept watch to the top left of the hill as I crawled. I got halfway up the hill smoothly, but just then a Blue SPARTAN jumped the crest of the hill, firing blindly into the trees where the sniper had fired her shots. Athena pulled back around the tree as the SAW tore up limbs and splashed into the water around her. I took careful aim at the SPARTAN's head and squeezed. A burst of three caught the SPARTAN int the temple, dropping him instantly and sending him rolling down the hill. Athena peeked back around and gave a thumbs up, I continuing my crawl.

I reached the crest of the hill and peeked over. There stood two more SPARTAN's, both of them poised to strike at whatever appeared next. I popped my head back under the lip of the hill and looked back down. I flashed my index finger twice at Athena, motioning her forward. She made the crawl up the hill, appearing next to me half a minute later.

"Two on the hill, both armed." I said, she blinked a green acknowledgement light, trying to make as little noise as possible.

I peeked over the hill for another moment and poked back down. One was armed with a DMR, the other, a lightrifle. I took a plasma from my belt and primed it, nodding at Athena, who in turn drew an automatic shotgun from her back. I tossed the grenade over and stood up, not waiting for an explosion. The lightrifle wielding SPARTAN was taken down in my Battle Rifle fire, the other being dropped by Athena. I smiled behind my visor as we went to claim victory. I stood atop the hill and looked down into the Stalker helmet of the SPARTAN holding the DMR. I turned to congratulate Athena in the victory, her happiness being able to be felt through her helmet.

A cold feeling rushed over my body as I was thrown from the simulator. I stretched my neck and arms and looked around at the others stepping down from their respective simulators. I smiled at both Crow and Meteor, whom I'd taken out. Athena looked at Fallen and Phoenix, smiling viciously as she took off her helmet. Phoenix snickered before looking at Dragon with a disapproving look.

Dragon shrugged, "What? There was nothing I could do, you hit me from far away like coward. Bring it in close and I show how real man fights!" said Dragon with a chuckle.

Phoenix smiled a bit before walking off. Everyone else followed. We talked and laughed as we walked back to our cabins, Dragon coughing up the 5 dollars he'd bet Phoenix. I listened intently, speaking whenever I was asked a question or if I was mentioned. But my absence from the conversation allowed me to notice something. There was a lone girl, 6' in height. She was staring at a SPARTAN undersuit in her hands as she walked down the hall in the direction of the marines' cabins. She seemed strangely...familiar. Though I couldn't quite place it. I left it alone as she passed us by and we all walked merrily into the mess hall.


	13. Fallen Angel

It was late at night, I was asleep in my bunk, in a cabin adjacent to Jasmine's. The others were all down the hall, each in cabins exactly the same as ours. We had a hall to ourselves, Crimson hall they called it. We had 8 cabins, one of them empty. It was a fairly decent cabin compared to what the marines got. We had a nightstand, a table, small closet and of course a bed. It was extremely quiet on the Infinity after lights out. The humming of the forerunner's engine was all to be heard in the huge confines of this ship. But tonight was different. There was another noise above the engine. It was a human noise, coming from somewhere close. I opened my eyes and placed my feet on the ground, the cold metal of the ship freezing the soles of my bare feet. I stood, stretching my back in the white t-shirt I wore, shorts covering down to my knees. I slid the door to my cabin open, the engine's humming and the other noise becoming significantly louder. The hall was dimly lit with barely burning lightbulbs. I strained my ears to hear where the strange sound originated from. I looked dead ahead, at the door to Jasmine's cabin. It seemed to be coming from inside. I walked across the hall, looking down each side of the corridor as I did. I reached Jasmine's door and timidly grabbed the handle. I slowly cracked the door, the sound now evidently coming from inside. I cracked it enough for me to slip in and waited for my eyes to adjust back to the pick black of the quarters after shutting the door. What I saw surprised me to say the least.

Jasmine was sweating in her sleep, mumbling words I couldn't make out. Her face was scrunched up into a face of what I would say was fear. She jerked her head to one side and the other, making a squeal as she did so. These were the noises I'd heard. I moved closer to her bed, crouching a bit to get closer to her. She slowly began to breathe faster, raspy shallow breaths taken into her lungs. She began to thrash, throwing the sheets and flinging the sorry excuse for a pillow across the room. I sprung onto her bed, sitting against the headboard, Jasmine's torso in my arms. I had grabbed her from behind, one arm under her left arm, the other wrapped over her chest. She began to thrash more violently, clawing out at me.

I pulled her higher into my lap, grabbing both her arms in mine, wrapping her into a bear hug. She began to squeal and shriek, I shook her a bit, jostling her awake. She awoke and took a huge gulp of air, and began taking as much air as she could. I let go of her arms as she folded over and coughed for a few moments before noticing she was sitting in my lap. She turned in my lap, and remembering my first encounter with her and her mentioning not liking being touched, I expected to be slapped, or punched. Instead she turned her body in my lap, her legs hanging out to the side, and looked at me, tears brimming her eyes. I looked back down at her, not knowing what she was going to do to me for both awakening and touching her. Well it wasn't what I had anticipated. She wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her face into my shoulder, letting out a sob. Her chest heaved with the sobs she took, letting out who knows how many days, weeks, years of held back emotion. Looking strong in front of squadmates, marines, superiors. She let it all out. I wrapped her up once more, though this time in an embrace, not a restraint. I rubbed a hand up and down her arm in an attempt to calm her, she in turn grabbed two handfuls of the back of my T-shirt, pulling me tighter to her, holding on to me were I to suddenly disappear.

I held her there for I don't know how long, rubbing up and down her arm, her body held tightly to mine. It could have been minutes, or hours. But when she finally stopped sobbing enough to be able to talk, she drew back off of my shoulder, releasing my shirt from her grasp, but kept her arms around my neck.

She spoke softer now, seemingly embarrassed, "Thank you." she whispered.

I rubbed her arm again in response.

She waited a solid minute before speaking again, "I-I know it's against protocol, but could you, maybe, stay with me? Just for tonight?"

I rested my chin on top of her head and responded, "Yeah, I can stay tonight. Come talk to me whenever you need to ok." the words spilled over my lips subconciously, my heart telling my mouth what to say, not my brain.

She buried her head deeper into my shoulder and nodded. I layed down, bringing her down wtih me, keeping her head in my shoulder. She swung her legs around and lay there, next to me, nuzzling into my shoulder stained with her own tears.

And we slept.


	14. Suiting Up

I woke from my slumber, the warm feeling of Jasmine's head still gracing my shoulder. I looked over at the small nightstand, three red numbers standing out in the darkness. It was 2:13, 2 hours before I usually woke up. I looked down, seeing Jasmine's head resting in the crook of my arm. I couldn't help but smile. She looked peaceful for the first time since I'd met her. Seemed content, tranquil. Happy. Seeing her this way made the same feelings wash over me. She shifted in her sleep, subconsciously draping an arm across my chest. I ran my left hand up her back, up to her head, running my fingers through her hair. She rubbed her head against my chest as I did this, smiling in her sleep. Her hair slipped through my fingers like water, so smooth and soft. The smile on her face only widened as I continued to stroke her hair. I leaned my head back and looked out the window, seeing the deep vastness of space. The only light in the void were specks of white. far off planets, stars, ships, who knew. The stars moved slowly across the window as Infinity drifted, the bridge the only asset of infinity awake at this hour. I looked back over at the clock, 3:15. I had lost track of time while I'd lost myself. I looked back over at Jasmine, her eyes were now open, looking up at me. Her violet eye was almost illuminated in the dark. She was blushing strongly, smile still plastered on her face, my hand still brushing through her hair.

She spoke in a whisper as to not wake the others in rooms nearby, "Good morning."

I smiled at her, not needing to answer.

"Wanna go get breakfast before the marines take it all again?" she asked, her smile widening.

"Up to you, I'm good staying here." I said, returning her smile.

Her blush became a deep dark red, she looked down, burying her face in my chest to hide her cheeks from my view.

"Let's just go get some breakfast." she mumbled through my shirt, embarrassed.

I chuckled, swinging my body off of the bed and standing up. I walked to the door and turned around, Jasmine, still lying in her bed, had her eyes trained on me as I opened the door and walked out, closing it behind me. I walked into my own room and looked in the small closet I had. I pulled down the standard UNSC sweatpants, slipped on some tennis shoes, and pulled a hoodie on over my tee. I looked in the mirror, my hair dishevelled, my neck sore from sleeping without a pillow. How quickly we push these small luxuries to the back of our head. I walked out of my room, snagging my toiletries from the nightstand. I walked down the hall to the shared bathroom and began combing my hair, brushing my teeth afterwards. As I walked out of the bathroom, Jasmine walked in, wearing a black tank-top and sweatpants just like mine. She had a hoodie wrapped around her waist as well. I tried not to stare at her, but I couldn't help myself. I kept watch on her as she passed out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head around to look at her as she walked into the bathroom. I'm ashamed to admit it but my eyes may have… wandered a bit. I shook my head and looked forward, replacing my toiletries in my room. I then leaned up against the wall at the end of the hall, waiting for Jasmine. As she replaced her toiletries she joined me and I pushed off of the wall, walking alongside her.

I looked at her amazingly long hair, tied back in a ponytail. Her hair reached the backs of her knees, which in retrospect wasn't that far. From my 8" height advantage over her, her body seemed absolutely tiny, small even to some of the marines, but they dare not question her abilities. I walked into the mess hall next to her, several marines already dining in the dim, greenish hue of the lights. It still wasn't four, so the lights would be dimmed for a bit longer. We walked up to the line, grabbed a tray, and walked down the mess's infamous breakfast line. Known by everyone in the ship to be the only time they served half decent food. I grabbed nothing to heavy, a banana, some grits, some apple juice. I followed Jasmine to a table where she sat. I sat adjacent her, not minding the stares from all of the marines, it was normal at this point. Jasmine had gone a little more bold with her food choices. She had gotten a plate piled high with bacon, eggs, grits, pretty much all that they served. I took a bite from my grits and watched as she devoured the bacon in no time. I chuckled a bit, taking another bite from my pile of flavorless grits.

I leaned across the table and spoke into her ear, "Don't eat the grits, they taste like shit."

She laughed with a mouthful of egg, struggling not to spit out her meal. She swallowed as I sat down and smiled a malicious smile at her. She regained her breath and punched me in the chest as I took a drink from my cup of apple juice.

She smiled, "Dipshit"

"The one and only." I responded

This sent her into another laughing fit, I wondered if she was ticklish. I would definitely have to try that out. The black eye would be worth it. Her laughter slowly died down as Athena walked over to our table, tray in hand. She sat next to me and gave a soft hello. We both gave a quick greeting before returning to our meals. Soon Athena was eating at her food too. The mess hall became more packed as the lights flickered on, the room suddenly awash with life, the green, horror movie tint being replaced with a pure white light. Soon the rest of Crimson had found the table. About four or five seats down the table sat Fireteam Majestic, both Fireteams chatting away about what had recently happened. I wished I could tell the squad what I'd recently done but I don't think Jasmine would ever forgive me.

I looked at the clock on the wall, 5:02. We'd been in here longer than I'd thought. Suddenly though, an earsplitting alarm burst through the mess hall.

"Everyone, to your battle stations. This is not a drill, Infinity is under attack, I repeat we are under attack." said Roland over the intercoms.

Suddenly the mess hall broke out into chaos. Me and Crimson team pushed our way back to our hall, each of us throwing on the jumpsuits in our closets, walking into the hall and zipping the back of whomever was in the room adjacent. We all jogged to the armor bay, peeling off as we went into different armament areas. I was the last into a bay as I watched just to my right Phoenix's MJOLNIR Mark IV helmet being slipped onto his head. I stepped into my boots, the machines tightening them on. I spread my arms as my forearms were covered up by white and green armor plates. I was slipped into my helmet, upper arms, and thigh armor following. I was then turned horizontal as my chestplate was fixated onto me. I was then turned back vertical, released, and handed a Battle Rifle. I jogged off of the platform and back into the line of SPARTANs rushing to the hangars. We grabbed jetpacks off of the walls as we passed, throwing them on and pushing the button on the straps, the straps drawing up tightly to our armor. We continued jogging until we reached the hangar bay, hangar bay 6 to be exact. This was the same hangar I had docked in every time I'd taken off or returned to Infinity. There was a pelican already there for us. Jasmine ran into the back door, running past the seats and hopping into the pilot's seat. The rest of us filed into the back of the pelican, holding onto the rails on top.

"We're up!" I screamed, Jasmine punching the throttle, the boosters sputtering to life as we were lifted into the air and out of the hangar, door still open.

As we flew farther away from Infinity I got a view of what we were up against. As we got just far enough away to see over the massive warship, a covenant Corvette came into view. We all shifted uncomfortably as we watched hoards of Banshees and Seraphs spilled out of the ship, the occasional Phantom following. The pelican turned to engage the enemy and the Corvette was removed from our line of sight. I looked around the hold, giving my infamous nod to the team, to which they returned the gesture. We were about to fly face first into the belly of the beast.


	15. First Mission Again

My eyes snapped open, I bolted upright, a bead of sweat dripping across my forehead. My breathing was heavy and ragged. Not and abnormal occurrence anymore. I calmed my breathing and rested my head in my hands, sighing. I was getting tired of these nightmares, always getting in the way of my sleep patterns. I had been outfitted to my armor yesterday, and I was already in love. The FOTUS helmet that had been perfectly fitted to my head was beautiful, standing out against my helioskrill armor of the same blood red base trimmed with violet, I had picked the colors to match my new eyes, almost symbolizing my two different selves…

They told me I would need to meet them in the armor bays today, 4:00 sharp. I looked over at my clock. 2:13, 2 hours before I was scheduled to be there. I shrugged before throwing my legs off the bed and walking to the closet. I took my jumpsuit from the closet, studying the nanofibers the suit was made of, pretty interesting should I get into it. I removed my shirt and shorts, shivering a bit as the ship's freezing air brushed against my exposed skin. I quickly hopped into my jumpsuit, trapping my body heat. I struggled to reach the zipper on my back, using both hands to work it to a position accessible from the top. I zipped up and went straight to the washroom, I'd skip breakfast but hey, breakfast wasn't really my style anyways. I walked into the bays at 3:45 precisely, armor engineers already milling about.

I approached my bay and was greeted by a short, chubby engineer, "Ah, Lilith, you're early."

I smiled at the man as he pushed his glasses up, "Nothing better to do I suppose."

He nodded, obviously not really fully there. I attempted to converse no further.

"Stand here please." he said, pointing to the already familiar armor bay.

I placed my feet into the boots, the machine coming alive. It placed my armor with such precision, efficiency, speed. A fitting machine to outfit a SPARTAN. As the machine released me from its grasp I stepped down and rolled my neck, getting some blood back into my arms as well. The doctor seemed satisfied. What he did next was a little weird. He reached into the pocket of his lab jacket and pulled out a dogtag, glowing a crimson and violet light. I looked at it in fascination as he handed it over to me, I now realizing it was a chip, not a dog tag.

"Well, go ahea- wait, you've never seen one of these have you?" asked the man, looking at me questioningly.

"No I haven't actually." I said, becoming a slight bit impatient with the man.

"It's an A.I. We looked at your psych evaluation and found you would probably need her." he said.

I was taken aback, he couldn't be referencing what I think he was referencing. I took the chip from his hands, turning the chip over slowly, I studied it, the circle in the middle colored half crimson and half violet, just like me.

"It goes into the back of your helmet, go ahead then, try her out." he said, looking at me anxiously, waiting to see if his science experiment would be a success.

I removed my helmet and looked at the back, seeing a slot for a chip this size. I inserted the chip and watched the glow fade away. I slipped my helmet back onto my head and shivered as i was flooded with old memories, all tinted in crimson and violet. A crimson memory of an old bully, a violet one of the lake by my house back when I was a small girl. The inside of my head was cold, chilling my brain. Suddenly, it stopped. I was looking back through my visor, at the chubby scientist. But their was something more there, something… better. Suddenly, a violet face appeared in the upper left of my HUD, smiling with a kindness unbeknownst to me.

She spoke with a voice more caring than any I'd ever heard, "Hello Lilith, I'm Freya, looks like we'll be working together."

She smiled warmly again, I myself being taken aback by the suddenness of her. She was beautiful, the straps of a summer dress visible on her shoulders. I blushed a bit as she continued to smile, causing her to giggle.

"I see you're a little shy there." she said with another giggle, this causing me to blush further.

I finally gained my composure, "So um, Freya, what do you know about me?"

"A good bit of things, I read your psych eval, I know all about your statistics, combat records, training score, I even know about Kikyo." she said, smiling briefly.

For what seemed like the 5th time that day I was taken aback. I had told no one about her, how could she-

"Don't worry, I'm no creep, I just met her while drifting through your subconscious, like you saw your own memories, it's because I'm modeled off of you, I was given your memories."

So this A.I. knew everything that I did and more, she had my memories and an endless databank of information accessible in no time flat. I shouldn't have been, but I was slightly intimidated.

"So Freya, what-" I was cut off by the wailing alarm filling the armor bays.

A man's voice rebounded off of the walls, coming from the ship's intercom system, "Everyone, to your battle stations. This is not a drill, Infinity is under attack, I repeat we are under attack."

I looked at the mechanic, who was wide eyed with fear. He dropped his clipboard and screamed at me, "Go! Get to a pelican! I've got to get other people armored up!"

I turned and began jogging out of the armor bays, while I ran out, dozens of other SPARTANs flooded in. Frey a was busy with something, biting her lip, face twisted in concentration.

"There's a bay up here on your left, pelican dropship already open just to your right once you're inside." freya said, still looking at something I couldn't see with that confused expression on her face.

I slid on the smooth metallic floors of the ship, turning my body to the left and taking off again. The hallway opened up into an enormous hangar. Turning to the right I saw a pelican, almost filled with SPARTANs already. I jumped in whilst it was taking off, the landing gear barely off the ground. I quickly grabbed onto a handle as the door shut behind me. The other SPARTANs looked at me all at once.

One SPARTAN clad in black and purple scout's armor spoke, "Um, where are your weapons?"

I looked at him, not able to answer I turned my head to the cockpit. He shrugged and pulled the sniper off of his back. A particularly large SPARTAN wielding a gravity hammer chuckled at me, his fiery orange chestplate bouncing on his chest. I did my best to ignore him.

As we exited the hangar we turned immediately, banking around to the right and flying straight towards the enemy forces. I stared at the cockpit's window, not believing the scene before me. We were flying into that!? I always knew SPARTANs were crazy, but not this crazy. I shifted my grip on the handle uncomfortably, gulping down the fear in my throat.

As we flew through a storm of seraphs, they took a few shots, soon being distracted by longswords firing into their ranks. We got through with a few new scorch marks on the pelican, everyone inside making it out fine. the real problem arose when we reached the banshees that were flying about. They had nothing to draw their fire from us. we started to bank left and right, attempting to avoid the burning balls of plasma that were fired at us from all directions. We took one hit after another, one of the antigravity engines in the back failing.

"We've lost power to engine three!" shouted the co-pilot.

"I know, I know." said the grizzled piot, the pelican flying slightly lopsided. We took a hit in the back, several pings resounding off the back door to follow.

"Shit, one of you SPARTANs grab a launcher and wait for that door to open!" said the pilot.

A blue SPARTAN grabbed a rocket launcher off the wall, a pink SPARTAN near the door grabbing onto his back armor with one hand, and the Pelican with the other.

"Ready!" yelled the blue SPARTAN, the door lowering in return.

On our tail was a lone banshee, firing plasma bullets at us. the plasma bullets cut into the pelican as the door opened, the SPARTAN letting off two rockets in return. In an attempt to dodge the first missile the second collided with its right wing, the banshee erupting in a spectacular show of purple and blue flames. Seconds later the banshee exploded, the pink armor clad soldier throwing the blue soldier through the antigravity environment of the pelican. the pilot closed the door quickly, the blue SPARTAN falling back to the floor. He tossed the launcher, grabbing the handle again.

"Medic!" screamed the pilot, the co-pilot's head lulling over into our view, a hole burned in the back of his seat.

The pink SPARTAN ran to the cockpit, dragging the co-pilot out. She laid him on the back floor, looking at the charred hole in his weakly armored chest. He let some blood spill out of the corner of his lips before reaching up and grabbing the arm of the pink medic. he tried to say something but it came out as a garbled noise, the blood rising in his throat making it impossible to speak. The medic crossed herself, placing the forehead of her CIO helmet against his, the co-pilot's grip slowly loosening on her arm as he choked on his blood. I hung my head, but was soon reminded that we were in a war zone by the urgent voice of the pilot.

"Brace for impact!" he screamed, one of his hands flying up to the safety handle above his head.

I grabbed onto the bar holding the handles with both hands, everyone else just holding onto their handles tighter. The pelican was shaken to the left, turning us almost sideways. The pilot struggled to regain control of the already weakened pelican, but soon we were falling more than flying, directly towards the covenant's corvette. The last thing I saw before I blacked out the purple shell of the Corvette cover the cockpit's view.

I awoke in a strange place, it was dark, flames everywhere. As I rolled over onto my stomach and pushed myself up, I realized I was inside the Corvette, the pelican having bust through the hull. The Corvette had shielded the hull breach, returning normal pressure. As I attempted to remain standing, my knees weak, I looked around me. I had been thrown from the pelican as it was torn by the hull of the enormous ship. I saw the bodies of the Scout and Gravity hammer wielding SPARTAN, both weren't moving. I looked away before looking back. I saw the sniper rifle and gravity hammer laying next to their respective owners. I pushed off of the piece of metal I was leaning against, taking a few stumbled steps toward their bodies. I grabbed the sniper rifle first, the poor soldier's fingers still wrapped around the grip. I took the rifle, giving a silent prayer out to the SPARTAN. I then grabbed the hammer, which had been thrown out of the orange armor plated hands of the brutish SPARTAN laid before me. I locked the rifle onto my back, using the gravity hammer as a makeshift crutch to help me get around. I shuffled to the other side of the pelican, and what I saw was enough to give me hope. The pink SPARTAN struggled with a particularly heavy piece of metal which trapped her left leg. I hobbled over, the girl not taking notice of me yet. I grabbed the piece of metal from behind her and helped her lift it, she yanked her leg out from under it as it fell back to the ground.

"I can't find anymore survivors near you Lilith, he seems to be the only one." offered Freya.

I gave a slight nod before addressing the SPARTAN in front of me.

"Hey, are you alright?" I asked her.

As she turned, giving me a good look at her faceplate for the first time, I noticed her visor had been split diagonally, her face visible underneath. She tossed the helmet and smiled at me, she held out her palm, placing her other hand vertically on it, she raised her vertical hand before dropping her arms.

Freya came over my comms, "Lilith, she's mute, she's just signed that she's alright."

I took this information in, looking back at the tanned girl. I wondered how they could have possibly let her into the SPARTAN program mute.

"That's good, we need to get out of here, you got a weapon?" she nodded, drawing a DMR off of her back.

I chuckled, still leaning on my newly, and tragically, acquired hammer. She smiled again before looking at me questioningly.

I assumed she wanted to know what to do next, but the problem was, I really didn't know either.


	16. Search and Rescue

I grasped the handle above me tighter as we flew closer to the Corvette. I could hear Sarah in the background of my thoughts as we inched closer to the covenant fleet. I was focused, thinking about my squad, running over every scenario in my head, trying to count the odds of anyone getting hurt. And how I was going to stop that from happening. I finally was awakened from my trance like state when I heard Sarah's voice break through my cloud of concentration. She seemed worried, her voice screaming my name. I shook my head clear before looking at her in my HUD.

"Sam, Sam!" she screamed, trying to snap me out of it.

"Yeah, I'm back, sorry I just kinda drifted off."

"I can see that, but right now we need your head in the game, there's a real attack happening right now, this isn't a simulator."

"I know that, it's just-" I was cut short as our pelican rolled right, a green ball of plasma streaking by where we could see it out of the back.

"Sorry guys, you might wanna buckle up." said Fallen, a nervous chuckle coming over the comms.

I jumped in a seat quickly and snapped the buckle in place, the other following suit as the Pelican banked right and left, slowing down quickly or accelerating at random intervals. All we could see from where we sat was the infinity, Longswords now swarming out of its bays. I looked to my the left of the pelican's door, noticing the corvette come into view as we banked left again. What I saw terrified me, because it just as easily could have been us. I watched a friendly pelican get rammed in the side by a Phantom, knocking it off course as it flew straight into the corvette, the enemy phantom flying off with nothing but a few shield damages. I stared in shock for a moment before turning toward the cockpit.

"We got a Pelican down!" I screamed.

Fallen her head to the right, seeing the same thing I'd seen. She stared for a second before readjusting her grip on the steering module.

"We've got to help them!" yelled Meteor, caring as ever.

"We can't risk it, and besides, how would we help them!" asked Fallen, swallowing hard, trying to push back the instinct to fly in to rescue the survivors.

"We go in the same way they did!" yelled Phoenix, his Battle Rifle being lifted into his grasp.

I took this all in, thinking for a moment. They continued their argument for a few moments longer, before I spoke up, "We have to at least try!"

The pelican fell silent. Fallen gripped the steering again before responding, "Yes sir."

The pelican banked to the right, turning around to gain distance before turning back towards the hole they'd made in the Corvette, the equivalent of a scratch on a normal ship. The pelican sped towards the opening, plasma bullets whizzing past us. As we neared the breach the pelican jerked violently, turning around and reversing up to the jagged edges of the hole. There was a shield covering the hole by now, another obstacle to push through.

"Ready," I said, the others standing with me, "Aim" the others drew up their guns alongside me, Athena's barrel resting on my shoulder, "Fire."

As the order was given all hell let loose in the back of the cabin, the blowback from Athena's barrel being absorbed by the spring loaded barrel that slid back and forth across my shoulder. My own Assault Rifle roared against my shoulder, spitting lead at the resistant shields of the Corvette. The onslaught of firepower began to wear on the shield, a hole opening up in the center.

"Go, go, go!" I yelled, he hole opening more as the shields deteriorated around the hole.

Dragon was the first to jump, using the thrusters on the back of his armor to propel him into the shield, shoulder first. This opened the hole exponentially, Phoenix following him, then Meteor, Athena, and Crow. Fallen stood from her seat in the cockpit, jumping down the stairs and stepping through the passenger bay. I gave her a nod, which she returned before she too boosted through the space between the open door and the hole. As I leapt after her, the shield began to close, I clearing the regenerating shields just before they got too small to slip through. I landed on my shoulder and felt my armor grind against the floor before coming to a stop. I rolled onto my back and saw a Crimson armored hand come into view. I grabbed the hand and pulled in sync with the unknown SPARTAN. As I stood I looked at the Crimson and violet trimmed SPARTAN, her armor bearing a large resemblance to Athena's, her colors being identical.

She was leaned on a gravity hammer, a pink armor clad SPARTAN next to her. I offered a nod to them both before turning to my team for a moment. They were battle ready, rifles on fire and wits on high alert, Meteor was on his knees, scanning each body for vitals before moving on. I turned back to the other two, satisfied with my own team's situation.

"Are you two the only survivors?" I asked.

They both nodded, "As far as we know sir, my A.I. can't find any other vitals in the area." said the Crimson colored SPARTAN said, the pink, helmetless SPARTAN nodding a confirmation.

"What are your names?" I asked the girl who had non-hesitantly called me sir.

"My name is Lilith sir, callsign Divine." she said, pointing to the girl next to her, "And she's mute, so I'm not sure."

I was slightly taken aback, "Ok, is it ok if I call you Pink?" I asked, just to have something to refer to her as. She gave a nod and a smile.

I sighed just as Sarah came into view. She offered a kind smile which I feebly returned before walking over to Meteor, "The A.I.s are getting no vitals Meteor, I think you might be fighting a pointless battle."

He looked up at me, his look solemn even through his visor, "I know." he then returned to his scramble to remove pieces of debris.

I patted his shoulder before standing and addressing the rest of the team, "Alright we need to get back outside, back to Infinity. But firing off a couple hundred rounds inside of a covenant ship, at a shield that has already twice been breached is probably not a good idea. Any plans?"

The team looked around at each other, expecting the other to have a plan. Each one coming up empty. I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I turned and was greeted by the face of Pink, a certain sparkle in her eye.

"What is it Pink?" I asked.

She made a few indistinguishable signs wit her hands, Sarah chiming in to translate, "She just signed escape pod Sam, and it's not a bad idea. The next set of escape pods is not too far."

I thought to myself for a moment before making a decision, "Alright squad, we have our plan. We're gonna head towards the escape pods closest to us. I'll have Sarah link you the directions so we're all on the same page. Lilith, Pink, you stay in the middle of our group, we can't have an injured and unarmored SPARTAN out in the open. Athena, Meteor, you've got our backs. Crow, Dragon, you have point. Me and Phoenix will fill in the sides, Fallen, you stay behind Crow and Dragon."

I saw each of the SPARTANs processing the information as I said it, each giving me a nod before proceeding.

"Alright Crimson. We are Oscar Mike!" I said, Crimson and the two survivors walking, jogging and hobbling into formation, Sarah sending directions, and I worrying my ass off about my team.

Crow and Dragon took the first step towards the unknowns of the Corvette, blindly following orders from a man that had already almost gotten some of them killed. I being the man that had ordered them, carried through my own plan in a tremendous amount of dread, for every time I spoke the word, someone else was in danger. And I couldn't afford to lose my team, couldn't afford losing a SPARTAN. Couldn't afford to lose a single soldier.

And I especially couldn't afford to lose her.


	17. Breach and Clear

Phoenix and I stood on either side of the door, Phoenix with his hand over the controls. A bead of sweat ran across my forehead. I looked at Dragon and Crow, weapons drawn and ready, awaiting the door to open. I looked at Phoenix, who was watching me closely, awaiting the signal. I blinked my red acknowledgement light. Then my amber, Phoenix tensing up. Then I finally flashed my green light, Phoenix smashing the control panel to open the door. The door slid open, Crow and Dragon stepping in and firing. We couldn't see what they were shooting or what they saw at all. But the rest of us followed them. Fallen marched in after them, shooting between them. Lilith and Pink peeled off onto the wall next to us as Meteor and Athena peeled off to the right and left of the inside of the door. Finally me and Phoenix peeled around the doorframe and place ourselves between Crow, Athena, Meteor, and Dragon respectively. We had unleashed hell in the Corvette. We stayed stationary for as long as we could before the Covenant became too thick to fight head on.

I threw down one of my deployable shields, an orb of hexagonal translucent shields covered us in a dome, "Go Go Go!" I screamed, giving us each enough time to regenerate our shields before leaving the protection of the device.

I sprinted to the left, Athena on my tail. I jumped up to the nearest platform and kicked off an unsuspecting jackal sniper, his bird like cries being silenced as his head collided with the ground. I observed my surroundings while I had the small moment of rest, seeing a heavily equipped front line of Elites and grunts carrying greater weapons than usual. I saw though, there were little to no Covenant behind the front lines, leaving them vulnerable from behind. I was thinking when Sarah screamed into my helmet.

"Sam, behind!" she yelled, her face concerned.

I spun into a crouch and looked for who she'd seen, I saw nothing. I went to stand before I saw the slight shimmer of an active camo unit. I rolled to the left, just as the stealth elite swung his sword. I recovered from the roll and fired at the glistening elite, watching as his shield satisfactorily failed, revealing him in full. He charged again as my clip ran dry. I dropped my rifle and drew my magnum, crouching low as the elite collided with me. I grabbed one of his legs and lifted with my own, pushing him into the air. I shoved the barrel of my magnum into his stomach as I flipped him over my shoulder, letting off five rounds and slamming the elites back into the ground, the magnum having torn through his unshielded armor. I fired the two rounds left in the clip into his head. Insurance policy as they always told me in training.

I turned to face the covenant front lines again, looking for any advantage I could exploit. I looked to my left and saw a wall, but to my right were elevated platforms similar to the one I stood on now. I leapt across to the next platform, keeping my legs pumping as I landed, jumping across to the next one. A jackal sniper had taken interest in me, a needle flying past my back. I stopped my momentum and cut back, a needle now flying past my front. The needle rifle had zeroed me in, and soon enough he would be able to lead me properly. I raised my battle rifle which I'd recovered since battling the elite and connected my HUD with it's magnified scope. I found the jackal sniper's red "eye" in a darker corner. A purple line beamed from his gun, striking me in the chest and knocking me back, my shields flickering. I got back in the sights and found his eye once more, loosing off three rounds and continuing my run, not needing to check if my target was down or not. I knew all three rounds had struck just where I'd needed them to.

I leapt once more before reaching the final platform. I slid to a halt and saw just what I'd needed, a gap in their defenses. I dropped to the floor behind a stationary plasma shield, checking my ammo and running diagnostics before getting back in the fight. To my right, in the center were Dragon and Crow. Farther to the right, past them was Athena. Directly behind me from my sitting position facing the way we'd come in were Phoenix and Fallen, blasting away. I leaned out from cover and fired at a few grunts holding plasma pistols, picking of a few jackals from their flanks before leaning back in. I reloaded before peeking out again. I shot a grunt that was running at Phoenix with two grenades in hand, both primed, he dropped them and successfully killed another 5 grunts with the grenades. I smiled to myself, a great conservation of ammo if you ask me.

I moved forward to take up a position next to Phoenix and Fallen, "Hey, Phoenix, Fallen, listen up!"

They both took cover next to me and all three of us kept firing.

"On our right, about 1 O'Clock, there's a stack of fusion coils, you see it?" I yelled over the hail of gunfire.

Two green acknowledgement lights flashed in my HUD.

"Alright, I'm gonna need you guys to cover my advance. I'm going to use those to break apart their line, you guys pick apart the stragglers!" I said, receiving another pair of green acknowledgement lights.

I sprinted from cover, heading directly towards the neatly stacked fusion coils. Over my back, Phoenix and Fallen held back the opposition, forcing them into cover and suppressing them enough for me to run past. I slid into cover near the fusion coils, out of the line of sight of any more wandering eyes. I snuck up to the large pile of fusion coils, stacked precariously over the front lines. Phoenix and Fallen both ducked as the front lines realized their numbers advantage. Needles and plasma rounds whizzed over their head as I pushed on the stack. At first the weight of the fusion coils was seeming to be unmoving, but soon I was able to busge them. They leaned over slowly, starting to fall. I heard the grunts and jackals underneath scream as they fell on top of them. I hefted a fusion coil onto my shoulder and threw it as far as I could, throwing it down into the center. A stray bullet caught it and it detonated, sending grunts, jackals and elites alike sprawling. I rolled another one down the platform, continuing a stream of explosives for my team to fire at, eventually running out of both fusion coils, and targets. The rest of my team mopped up the stragglers, mostly elites that had been able to survive the onslaught, being taken down in focused fire. Lilith and Pink stumbled into the room, Pink holding Lilith up on the side where her leg hurt, using a gravity hammer to balance on her other side.

I motioned them up, to the next door where Phoenix was already waiting. We stacked up once more, this time on the walls and not in a bottlenecked hallway. I flashed my acknowledgement lights in a countdown once more, Phoenix pressing the door's control panel. Nothing happened.

"Uh, sir, we've got a problem." he said, looking at the panel in confused anger.

I sighed, "They locked the doors." I said, more of a statement than a question.

He nodded, sighing as well. Dragon stepped around and removed looked down at the control panel.

"Felicia says she can open the door. She will need a way into the ship's network she says." he said, everyone giving out a breath of relief.

Athena then stepped up, "I believe I can help with that. Nexus says that he can have the network open for Felicia in a few minutes."

"I'll keep watch for any oncoming covenant forces." said Sarah in my own helmet.

"Sarah's got our asses covered." I said.

"Looks like we have ourselves a plan." Fallen said, looking at the door.

A few minutes later Felicia was in, we once again formed up, Felicia ready to go. I blinked my acknowledgement lights again. When it hit green the door slid open, Sarah gained access to the room's security and Maxwell gained access to security all at once. We stormed the room, aiming at each corner and crevice and shadow. We moved forward, it seemed this room was empty.

"Escape pod's are the next room over." said Sarah, I relayed the information to everyone else before we got to the next door.

We stacked up for what we hoped was the final time, Lilith and Pink once again leaning against the wall just outside while we pushed up. Phoenix nodded and I counted down. Felicia had the door ready. As soon as the door opened Phoenix peeled in, I rolled in after him, followed by the rest of the squad. We aimed in trained precision, Phoenix checking the hallways branching off to our right. He moved up to the next hallway.

Sarah went over team comms, yelling at Phoenix now, "Phoenix, step back!"

He did as he was told, just as an elite's arm grabbed around out for him, he dropped his gun in surprise and grabbed the elite's arm, snapping it as he jerked it across the hallway's edge. The elite gave off an aggravated yell, his arm disappearing back down the hallway. Phoenix retrieved his gun and peeked around the corner. He went to pull the trigger, just as the barrel of his gun was sliced off, an energy sword coming into view as Phoenix slid back, dropping the mangled piece of scrap. The elite stepped forward and thrust the two prongs of plasma forward, Phoenix just sliding away. The elite shuffled, Phoenix now blocked off from us by the elite. I ran off of pure instinct in that moment. I drew my knife and charged the elite, jumping onto his back. The unsuspecting elite swung the sword dangerously close to my faceplate before I could lean away. He resorted to smashing me against the ship's walls, unable to pry me off with his broken arm. I dug my knife into the back of his neck and was met with a nasty surprise. This elite was wearing neck armor. I grunted in frustration and dropped my knife. I kicked out at his broken arm with my left leg, distracting him for a moment. I pushed myself up onto his shoulders and spun. I was now holding onto him with nothing but my legs, facing his front. I bent backwards and let my legs slip down, wrapping my ankles around his neck. I put my hands on the ground and used all the strength in my legs to flip him over me. He slammed into the ground with his back, my feet hitting the ground.

I quickly readjusted my stance to straddle the chest of the elite. I punched the elite once. Twice. Three times. I lost count. I punched until the elite stopped moving, until there was nothing there left to punch. I was breathing heavily, heaving in breaths of air. I sat back and looked down at what I had done. I saw the mangled face of the elite, all of which my frustration had brought.

"Sam…" Sarah said, her voice concerned.

I gulped before pulling in another breath. I felt two hands pull me up, I instinctively jerked before allowing the hands to help me to my feet.

"Easy girl, just me" said Phoenix, "thanks for saving my ass there."

I nodded at him, still breathing heavy. The rest of the team moved in and walked over the corpse, Crow bending to retrieve my knife and returning it. I sheathed the blade before staring down at the elite. Lilith and Pink staggered past to an escape pod. I waited for just a minute, looking down at what my frustrations had caused upon something living just like me.

If I could endanger something like this. Could I endanger my team?

I should have never let him out.

 _Cliffhangers, cliffhangers, ooh I love em'. Anyways, hope you guys are liking the steadily elongating chapters, soon enough I may have some 3000 word ones coming out. Now I know this isn't huge, but this story is like a continuous chain of one-shots almost. Have a good one!_

 _Till next time  
TheLooneyBin_


	18. Ardent's Upcoming

I sat in the escape pod, surrounded by three other fellow squadmates. I looked up at the corvette which we'd just ejected from. I closed my eyes and sat in silence for a moment. We had left Pink behind. There were two four man pods left and she couldn't fit. She shoved Lilith in and ejected the pod. We didn't even know her name and she gave her life to get us off that ship. I will not forget that. What she did for my team will never be forgotten.

I looked back at the other occupants who rocked with the jolts of the pod, bodies almost limp. I knocked my head back against the organic material in which this strange, intricately designed pod was made of. I sighed, drifting off into my memories.

 **15 Years Ago**

"Daddy?"

"What is it Sam?"

"When is Mom coming home?"

My father sighed and placed a hand over his eyes before looking down at me, his eyes surrounded by dark drooping skin.

He smiled a comforting smile, "Come here darling." he said, picking me up and placing me on his lap.

I had just turned 5 and my mom had been gone for a few weeks. She said she'd be back for my birthday, but she never came.

"Your mom has a very important job, and sometimes she just can't leave whenever she wants. But she's off somewhere, fighting the bad guys, ok?" he said.

My face dropped a bit, I had really wanted to see her. I pulled out the tiny toy soldier she'd given me. It was a Spartan, they were like super heroes. I wanted to grow up to be like one of them. But I would be fine with growing up to be like my mom.

I perked up a bit, "When I get older can I go fight bad guys?"

My dad chuckled a bit, "You sure can sweetie."

My dad set me down on the porch of our house, standing on both of his prosthetic legs.

"Now let's go get some ice cream, shall we?"

"Yeah, yeah!"

 **7 Years Later**

I looked in the mirror. I had a picture of my mom's face in the bottom right. She was smiling, her brown shoulder length hair waving in a long past wind, her bottle green eyes sparkling in the summer's sunlight. I gritted my teeth and held back a tear. It had been a year since the covies had killed my mom. I looked in the mirror at my long hair and stared for a bit. I lifted the scissors in my hand and put it to my hair. People always said I look just like her, why not go the whole way. I chopped off the first chunk of hair, letting the good 8" worth fall to the floor. I kept cutting all the way around, slicing off thick, long strands of lines of hair.

I looked at my work once I'd finished. I looked good. I really did look just like Mom. I swore a while back that I would go kill the bastards that took my mom from me. I thumbed her dog tags that hung around my neck.

Thomas  
Claire B.  
478-10-5239  
B Pos  
Christian

The dog tag read. I gripped the dog tag in my fist and promised to myself that I would get out of here as soon as possible and join up.

"Samantha, are you up there?" yeled my dad from downstairs.

"We've been over this dad, it's Sam, never Samantha!" I yelled back, slightly annoyed.

"Ok, alright, got it. You've got to go to school now." he said.

I sighed and looped the strap of my backpack onto my shoulder. I walked downstairs, standing in front of my dad.

He smiled, tears brimming his eyes, "You really do look just like her."

"That's what everyone says anyways." I said back, walking out the door and heading off to school.

 **Later that day**

I was breathing frantically. My legs pumping, lungs on fire. I turned my head to look for a moment and saw a marine impaled on the end of a blue sword like weapon. I turned my head back around and shrieked. About 20 yards away stood one of the monsters. It wore blue armor and towered over the tallest man. It held one of the swords and stared right at me. I turned to run but tripped, crawling backwards on my hands. The thing started toward me, its strange mouth opening and closing. I quavered and shook violently in the bitter cold of the evening. I looked up and gulped, praying to every god I'd ever heard of that something would stop it. Something. Anything.

As I stared up I noticed something in the sky. It was moving fast and coming towards me. I curled up as the object collided with the ground in front of me, showering me in dirt and pebbles. A man wearing armor walked out, but his armor was different. He looked like he wore better armor than the marines. I couldn't see his face through the visor on his helmet. i curled up again as bullets sprayed from the gun in his hands. It was a violent sound, ripping through the air and shredding into the monster. The monster charged the man but he stood strong and continued shooting. The monster fell at his feet. He shot it twice more and mumbled to himself.

"Insurance policy…"

He walked over to me and crouched, "You alright kid?" he asked.

I nodded, unable to speak from the shock. He stood up and began speaking into a radio, something about hopeless, survivors, and-pelicans?

Everything else was a blur, the next thing I remember was being shaken back to reality sitting in a strange ship. The same man who'd saved me looking at me.

"You still with me?"

I nodded drowsily, the day's events taking a toll on my small 12 year old form.

"You were really brave today, yeah?" he said, his helmet gone, his smile sincere.

I couldn't help but smile back. He was a soft faced soldier, nothing like what they made them out to be. He wasn't a savage, brutish, chiseled mountain of a man. He just looked like a teenage boy to me. He patted my shoulder and walked off. My head lulled to the side, and my eyes slowly closed under the weight of the events of the day. The last thing I heard before I passed out was the voice of another soldier talking about the imminent glassing of the planet. Whatever that meant.

 **Present Day**

I looked around the cabin of the escape pod. I snapped back to reality, it only being an actuality of about 5 minutes. Everyone else looked deep in thought. I was tired. My head lulled to the side, and my eyes slowly closed under the weight of the events of the day.

 _Surprise! Sam is not who you thought she was. I don't think many of you were able to pick apart the fact that she was a girl, maybe some of my more observant readers. Maybe I made some mistakes that lead you to believe she was male? If I did, let me know. If I fooled you, let me know. And if you guessed it, let me know! I love reading each and every review, and will reply to each and every question you have. If you are a guest user, I can't respond to your question, and I'm sorry._

 _Till next time,_

 _TheLooneyBin_


	19. Fallen's Climb

My head hung loosely on my shoulders, my hands only hanging onto the handles of the escape craft out of habit, not consciously. My eyes drifted upward, seeing Sam, her head knocked against the hull. I breathed in the stagnant air, the others in the pod in about the same state as me. That poor girl…

I looked at Thadeus's helmet in the top right of my HUD, unmoving as ever. The most I would ever see him do is lean his head from side to side, maybe nod or shake his head. I sighed and let the memories of my past finally come back to haunt me after mere hours of holding them back.

 **12 Years ago**

"Happy Birthday!" yelled my parents in unison.

I smiled with glee, a white ball of fur jumping onto the table, his yellow eyes looking into mine.

I laughed, "Tikky, you can't be up there!" I said, the cat cocking his head to the side and jumping into my lap, curling up and laying down, purring softly.

A present was handed to me, "This one's from me sweetie." said my mom.

I ripped into the present, opening the small box that had been wrapped in purple colored paper. As I removed the lid I beamed with joy.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I said, removing the small white eyepatch.

I removed the one already on my head, the black leather beginning to wear thin. I squinted as my light sensitive eye took in so much light at once. i slipped into the new one quickly, my violet eye the only one showing once more. My dad now handed me a present.

"Hope you like it sweetheart." said my dad, his voice kind and caring.

I tore into the multi colored, bright wrapping paper of this much larger box. when I opened it I pulled out something I'd been longing for for a while now, my parents always saying I would get it when I was older. I squealed as the radio was revealed. Both my parents chuckled as I wrapped my arms around my dad.

"It's perfect Dad." I said, grabbing the radio and setting it up on the living room's table before turning it on.

I began to sing and dance, my arms swinging and my legs twirling me around. I sang along to the song I barely knew the lyrics to.

"Come on Mom and Dad, dance!" I said.

They both chuckled before making their way over and dancing along with me. My dad picked me up and spun me in the air, a high pitched squeal followed by laughing coming from my newly 8 year old mouth. I giggled as he set me down. We danced into the light before celebrating by eating cake and ice-cream. Always my favorite.

 **1 Year later**

I was scared. Everyone was scared. Except for my parents, my parents were strong. Right? I was holding onto my dad's hand in my right and my mom's in my left. We were running with a crowd of people. The sky was oddly purple that day. My favorite color.

"Stick with me sweetie ok, just hold on." said my dad for the third time.

I didn't know why everyone was so scared but the atmosphere itself rattled me. Tikky was in my bag, his head peeking out the top. My dad pushed a man out of the way, shoving through people. I couldn't see where we were going, or why.

We eventually came upon a large gate, some very strong looking men guarding it. They were holding guns too. My dad and mom let go of me for a moment. They were yelling at one of the men. He looked sad, sorry almost. I got knocked down by a man in the crowd. When I went to get up, I was shove away from my parents.

"Mom! Dad!" I yelled out, but they couldn't hear me over the chaos in the street. I fell over again and when I stood back up, I couldn't see them anymore.

I panicked. I started pulling on people's legs, trying to get their attention. None of them paid me any mind. I started to lose it, tears rolling down my cheeks. Soon I was out of options. I began to run. I ran back to house, thinking that my parents would have to eventually come back. I ran my little legs off, my humble home finally coming into view. I stormed up the stairs and flung the door open. I went inside and slammed the door shut. I ran to my room and curled up in my closet. It was my old hiding spot, only my parents would know to check here. I pulled Tikky out of his bag and pulled him into my lap, stroking his soft white fur, receiving a meow and a few purrs from him.

I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

It had been at least an hour, why weren't they back yet? They should have been back by now, an hour is a long time, I reasoned. There were loud booms outside, causing Tikky to tuck further into my lap. There were booms and pows and weird sounds I'd never heard over the sound of shouting.

I heard the front door swing open, the booms and shouts becoming much louder. I squealed and curled tighter. The shouting was in the house, it was a man. He was yelling at other people. Heavy footsteps came through the house, one pair coming into my room. I became completely silent, waiting for him to pass by.

Tikky meowed.

I placed my hand over his mouth a moment too late. The footsteps stopped for a moment, the footsteps returning after a moment, but headed towards the closet. the door opened and i screamed.

"Hey! Hey! It's alright, I'm not gonna hurt you." said the man.

I couldn't see him with my head tucked towards the wall. I slowly looked up and into the face of a soldier. He had some stubble along his chin, and a bushy moustache.

He reached out to touch me and I jumped away from his hand.

He drew his hand back and yelled to someone in the front of the house. Another soldier ran in and saw me. He reached in to grab me and the same result was gotten from him. He grabbed me anyways though and dragged me out of the closet, kicking and screaming with Tikky in my arms. He sat me in the living room, surrounded by men groaning in pain, bloodied up and covered in bandages. I looked to up and saw a man not too far away that was missing a leg. I immediately tucked myself back into a ball. I kept my head lowered through all the movements that followed. I was lifted into the air after a few struggles. I was sat down on a seat somewhere, it was pretty dark in here. I didn't want to look up, so I never did.

 **2 Years later**

I was at the orphanage. I recalled the events from two years ago, the ones that seemed so similar to today's. I was at the orphanage in which the kids stole food from one another. The same orphanage where I had cried over Tikky's death after he fell to the cancer. The same orphanage that I was now running from. The covenant were back, they'd found me again.

Being one of the older kids of the orphanage I corralled kids towards the evacuation point, though I knew they were too slow. I cursed under my breath and grabbed the nearest older boy.

"Get them out of here. I'll give you some time." i said, a certain steel to my voice which I'd gained over the years of emotionless waiting.

"What are you talking about? You can't do anything to stop them!" Yelled the boy.

This was why I didn't like boys, "Watch me." I said, shoving him away.

He ran off, continuing to lead the kids. I looked around me and grabbed a branch that had fallen off of the trees in the wind. after a few moments of looking I found another maneuverable limb, taking them each in a hand. I stood and waited for the covenant's advance. which was soon rising over the hill. I quavered in the wind like a leaf. As the covenant spotted me, they took aim. The one at the front, an elite from what I'd heard from the boys' gossip, stopped the others, activating a sword in his right hand. He walked toward me, towering a full 5 heads over me. I was always a short kid. The elite went to thrust his sword at me and I slid out of the way, smashing the branch over his arm.

the wood splintered and flew in all directions, the elite not even moving from the blow. The line of strange creatures went to fire once more but he stopped them again. he stared at me for a moment, my eyes hard, my jaw strong, but my body trembling in fear, the broken limb still held in my right hand.

The elite deactivated his sword and walked towards me. I broke the other branch over his head, a yellow spider web like structure igniting across his body. He kept walking and picked me up, throwing me over his shoulder. I screamed and flailed and made sure that getting me wherever he needed me was going to be a challenge. He seemed amused almost.

I beat at his back and watched as the ground disappeared from underneath his feet, replaced by metal. The ground slowly got farther away, until we were far gone. I slowly silenced myself as his footsteps became repetitive. I soon felt my body thrown onto the floor of metal, a heavy door shutting in response. I looked up and saw that I was in a cell, in unfamiliar surroundings. Surrounded on all sides by intricate walls of purple.

 **Weeks later**

It was the first week that was terrible. I hardly ate and never moved. When I finally did move, my ass was so sore I can not explain to you. Now I was eating normally, still confined to this cell. I was scared as hell but I wouldn't let them know that. I didn't know why I was here, or where we were going, but it was taking forever.

I sighed, sitting on the lone purple bench in the cell. I looked at the door. I was tempted to attempt a lockpick. I had learned skills like this at the orphanage, most of it second nature by now. I removed my hair pen and walked to the door.

I jiggled and cursed for hours before the cell's door finally clicked. My heart missed a beat when I heard that sound, that sound meant freedom. I opened the door cautiously and peeked out. Seems they thought I was too insignificant for a guard. I stepped out and shut the door behind me. I walked down a random corridor, hoping there would be no odd men out in the ship, anyone simply walking around. I kept walking for a while before I came upon a hangar. It was full of mysterious looking ships and weapons. I stalked in, the hangar empty for a reason I can't explain to this day. I walked up to a curvaceous looking ship, a large hatch open across the entire ship. I walked into the middle, the machine filled with controls.

I would come to study these symbols and levers for the next few weeks, picking the lock on my cell whenever I saw fit. The covenant had seemingly forgotten about me, the meals even becoming staggered and rare. It was on one of these days my world would change forever.

I was studying one of the machines, this one much bigger than others, when the entire vessel shook. I gained my balance before reluctantly peeking out of the ship. The hangar shook again, this sending me sprinting for cover.

I found refuge behind a pile of boxes as covenant poured in to take the ships and fly off. I watched as they flew out and immediately were engaged in combat. I ducked farther behind the crates, reminding me of hiding in my closet so long ago.

I ran out of the hangar and into the larger portion of the ship, almost abandoned because of the attack. I ran through the corridors for what seemed like forever before I came upon a strange sight. Sparks flew from the wall in one of the hallways, the sparks making themselves in a circular fashion. I watched curiously for a moment before a circular chunk of ship fell to the floor. I winced away from the crash as a mass of marines jumped in. One marine took notice of me before the others, walking over to me. This marine was a girl, she looked at me and studied for a moment before smiling. She removed her helmet and kneeled next to me.

"Hey there, you're safe now ok?" she said, smiling with the smile of a mother.

I nodded, my mental barriers almost breaking as this woman with the shoulder length brown hair and the bottle green eyes reassured me. Suddenly the hallway erupted in action. Marines shouted and shot, light twangs and ticks coming from covenant weaponry. I watched as a marine fell and the woman ran over to him, kneeling over his form. She removed some medical supplies from her bag and tending to the man.

"You aren't dying on me today Terrence!" she yelled, gripping the man's hand in hers. She wrapped him up and helped to his feet, helping him limp back to the entrance they'd made.

"Grenade!" screamed one marine, a blue flaming orb falling in the middle of the hallway, right in front of me, and right beside everyone else.

The woman that saved me threw Terrence and dove onto the grenade, I couldn't move, could hardly think as a marine yanked me to the side, the woman that had just saved everyone in this hall took the blast with her own body. Her body thumped up before falling back to the ground. I stared in shock at her. She gave her life for her team in no time flat.

"Claire!" screamed the marine who had grabbed me, a tragic hint to his voice.

My eyes were unblinking, my mental walls doing all they could to stop me from crying over a woman I'd just met.

I barely felt the sting of the purple needle slice across my face, scarring me for the rest of my life. I blacked out after that, waking up in a different ship, my head wrapped with bandages.

 **Present**

I gulped as I recalled that memory. Taking a deep breath and forcing myself to sleep.

 _Ooh how i love it when stories tie together all nice and smooth like._

 _Till next time,_

 _TheLooneyBin_


	20. Majestic

My eyes cracked open, my lips widening in a yawn as our escape pod was lurched to the side. I looked around drowsily, seeing Fallen and Cro, accompanied by Lilith. All was well. I looked out of the very restricting window, seeing that the escape pod was being hauled into a pelican's bay. Just beyond I could see another identical pod also being towed in.

"We're being pulled in, prepare to disembark." said Sarah over comms, all of the pod's occupants releasing the handles on the walls and checking their equipment.

"Sam, Lilith is attempting to reach you over private comms." said Sarah to me only.

"Patch her through." I said groggily, yawning once more.

"Hey." said Lilith, as the channel opened up.

"Hey, what is it?" I asked, trying my best to not sound annoyed through my tired voice.

"Thank you for saving me-" she paused, "again."

I turned my head to face her, "What do you mean again?" I asked.

Lilith removed her helmet, a smile plastered on her face. I immediately recognized her. She was the same marine we'd saved on my first mission. I tried to take in all of this information at once, my brain slowly grasping what was going on. It must have been a while since I'd spoken, because Lilith looked into my visor with worry.

"Ardent? You ok?" she asked quietly.

I came out of my thoughts, "Yeah, yeah… Oh, and don't thank me, it's her and Meteor you'd need to be thanking." I said, gesturing to Fallen.

She turned around, hearing my voice in which I'd forgotten was not on comms anymore.

"Thank me for what?" she asked, seeing Lilith's face at the same time.

"How?..." she said, studying her every detail, her every move.

"All thanks to you." Lilith said, slipping her helmet back on.

Me and Fallen exchanged a glance of confusion before the pod's door was pried open, a marine with a prybar looking dead into Crow's faceplate, several armed marines just behind him, lowering their rifles at the sight of the SPARTAN. The marine stepped back as Crow's fingers wrapped around the pod's doorcase and squeezed, denting the metal. He pulled the door inwards, curling it open enough for him to step through. When he stepped through he ducked down at least half a foot before he cleared the casing. Fallen followed him out, then me, and Lilith. I let Lilith prop herself against me, her Gravity hammer and sniper still mounted to her back. I helped her limp/hop to a seat in the pelican before a marine medic began doing all he could. Which wasn't much for the absence of a breach in the armor. I turned back to the small group of marines, their legs just now stopping themselves from clacking against each other. I addressed them with a nod before turning back to the front of the pelican. I walked into the cockpit, in between the two pilots, and stared at the infinity's hangar get slowly closer as we went to land.

After getting off of the pelican and boarding Infinity once more, we all went to get our armor off. We went through the relatively simple process before walking back out, the lot of us headed for the courtyard area. Once we reached the large open complex of Infinity, we sat and talked for a while, leaned up against walls, sitting on stray crates, or just standing. After about 15 minutes we heard a call from the other side of the room.

"Hey, Crimson!" came a male's yell.

I turned my head to see fireteam Majestic walking towards us. I shoved off the wall and went to meet the group, my fireteam falling in place behind me.

"What's up Majestic?" I asked.

"Nothing, but I see you're doing pretty good, for almost getting two of your squad killed on your first mission that is." he said with a smile.

I twitched my lip up in a half snarl before a hand landed on his shoulder.

"DeMarco, come one man, not cool." said another member of the fireteam.

"I'll do what I want Madsen." spat DeMarco, shrugging his hand off.

"What do you want." I hissed as Madsen retreated, shaking his head.

"For you to stop making us look bad" he said, "your shitty missions affect the way the rest of Infinity views all of us SPARTANs."

"Well I'm sorry for doing my job." I said through gritted teeth, neither of the fireteams wanting to say anything to the leaders.

"Well I'm sorry that you were ever transferred here." said DeMarco.

I chuckled a bit, "Well I'm here now, what are you going to do about it?" I asked, a smile playing across my lips.

"Well the question is, what are _you_ going to do about it. Matter of fact, why did they even make you leader? You're a girl for christ's sake!" he said with a chuckle, receiving a snarl from each of the girl's in either fireteam, "And who's this new chick? Another one for you to go and get killed? Why don't you just off yourself now, it'll save us a few casualties." he said, pushing on my chest.

I staggered back a bit and bit my tongue, trying to hold back, "DeMarco, don't push me."

"DeMarco, stop this, now. None of us wanted a part of this." said another one of the Majestic SPARTANs.

He shoved the other one out of his way, "Shut up Thorne, I'll deal with you later." he said walking forward.

"And if I push you, what'll you do about it?" he said with a large hint of hostility in his voice.

"You don't want to find out." I said, trying with all my power not to knee this man in his nuts as hard as physically possible.

He raised his arm to push me again but I was ready this time. I grabbed his right arm in my left, pulling him to me, in the same motion bringing my elbow to his ribcage. He let a breath escape his lips before I repositioned my elbow to jolt upwards into his armpit. He gasped in pain as I let go of his arm and pushed him over. He scrambled to his feet, taking an arcing swing at my head. I sidestepped, narrowly avoiding the heavy hit.

I felt a sting of pain on my left cheek before feeling my right cheek connect with metal. He had kicked me in the head, sending me tumbling to the floor. I pushed myself up, waving off Crow's attempts to help me.

"You guys stay out of this, this is personal now." I said, spitting on the ground in front of me.

I raised my fists at DeMarco, who in turn went to throw another punch. I dodged this one too, elbowing him in the back before turning to face him again. He stumbled forwards before regaining his balance and turning back to me. He growled, his lip twitching upwards. He stepped to me and tried to plant a foot in my chest. I caught his foot, sliding back with it before raising his leg and pushing forward. He fell to the ground once more, his leg still in my hand as I pushed it up to his chest, falling to the ground with him. He maneuvered his other leg to bend his knee over neck, pushing my head to the ground. He rolled over, putting a hand on my back and another on the one hand that wasn't caught under my body.

"Give up Ardent, you're done." he said with a chuckle.

I pushed up with the hand under my chest, lifting me up just enough to get a leg up, I pushed myself up with a knee, DeMarco allowing me to come up just enough to knee me in the stomach. I rolled over clutching at my stomach as I gasped for air. When I gained my breath again I went to stand, receiving a fist to the face for my efforts. I fell again.

Instead of going to stand up this time, I put my legs around either of his, scissoring his legs from underneath him. As he fell I scrambled to my feet, regaining my equilibrium. I was too busy catching my own breath to stop DeMarco from getting up as her rushed me again. I grabbed a bunch thrown at my stomach and tisted before throwing my own. He caught my hand as well. We were locked. I threw a knee and he blocked, I kicked he blocked and vice versa. I refused to let go of his hand and him mine as we fought for dominance. I started to slide backwards, his size advantage working against me. I pulled his hand upwards and let it cross under my other arm, each of our arms crossed over the other. I bent each elbow and pulled him closer before knocking my forehead against his nose. I heard a satisfying crack as he stumbled backwards holding his nose.

I breathed heavily as he removed hand and looked at the blood covered fingers.

"Why you little…" he stepped towards me.

I didn't know if I had much fight left in me, the lockup took a lot out. But I could see he was tired too. When he rared back I was too slow to dodge him. His fist connected with my jaw, sending me spiraling to the floor. I pushed myself up on feeble arms, blood spilling across the corner of my lip. I saw DeMarco on my left side. He raised his leg to kick me but the kick never came. I heard a thud and a yell from DeMarco, followed by several more poundings. I was helped to my feet by Madsen. Meteor was on my side in seconds, helping me to find a place to sit. He wiped my mouth clean and looked at my side and stomach. I could see though, just past his face, Thorne pounding the ever-living crap out of DeMarco. When Meteor left for even a moment, Jasmine was there, looking me over, seeing for herself the extent of the damage.

According to Meteor I had a few broken ribs, a bunch of bruises and a busted lip but other than that I was fine. But according to Thorne he made sure DeMarco was in much worse shape. We shared a chuckle before I thanked him.

"Anytime. By the way, everything he said, I don't know where that came from. Just DeMarco being DeMarco. But personally, I think you're doing great." he said, his voice sincere,

"Thanks, but why did you help me?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

"Because I have wanted a good reason to hit him since we met." he said with a smile.

"Hey Thorne, come help me haul this corpse off will you?" said another Majestic team member.

"Be right there Hoya." he said over his shoulder before turning back to me.

He smiled and I smiled back. He placed his hand on my shoulder for a moment before going to haul DeMarco off to the infirmary.

I looked at Jasmine, "Guess I need to go to the infirmary too huh?" I asked.

"Yeah, I would think, come on I'll help you." she said moving forward.

"You gonna carry me?" I asked with a chuckle.

"Fat chance Samantha, now get up so I can help your stupid self." she said, a small smile appearing.

"Sam, never Samantha." I corrected before obliging.

"That's why I called you Samantha." she said, placing my arm over her shoulder and her own arm around my hips.

Every step hurt like hell, but with Jasmine to help, it wasn't too bad.


	21. BRASS Newbie

It had been several days since our run in with DeMarco, my augmented body healing in no time flat. DeMarco was still in the infirmary with four broken ribs, a broken jaw, fractured skull and internal bleeding in the stomach. Thorne really laid a beat-down on him. Lilith had recovered even quicker than I, her dislocated hip no problem at all to a SPARTAN once it was reengaged.

I stood facing the CQC training arena, the weapon racks filled to the brink with simmed out weapons. Thadeus stood upon a pedestal not to far away, tapping away.

He turned to address us as a unit, "Alright Crimson, welcome, to the Team Analysis on Confined Tactics and Invasive Combat Scenarios. Better known as the T.A.C.T.I.C.S. test. I will be assessing your abilities to think, maneuver, communicate, and effectively eliminate enemy threats in close quarters environments."

I looked just beyond him at the polymer walls set up to resemble an urban office building, "in there are 8 hostiles. They will be controlled by no other than; your own A.I.s." Thadeus said, a slight bit of surprise coming from each of the respective team members.

Lilith stood off to the side to watch, just as soon as Thadeus turned to her, "You will be joining them." he said.

Lilith visibly recoiled at this, though she quickly walked down to the staging area on wobbling legs, the excitement filling her to the brink. She slowly got her legs to stop shaking as Thadeus returned to look at us, "Any questions?" he asked.

No one answered, "Good, well then, let's get started shall we?"

I saw Sarah flash me a brief smile before jumping to the console in which she would control from. I walked forward into the weapons room which had been stocked with simmed up versions of our weapons. I grabbed my Battle Rifle and my DMR from the rack, grabbing a magnum from one of the tables and loading it with sim rounds. Stocked on ammo I looked at everyone else shuffle with their weapons. I saw Athena place her sniper on her back and grab her auto shotgun. Meteor disassembling his lightrifle to load it. I watched curiously as Lilith grabbed a gravity hammer and a spare knife. Strange combination. She went with no gun, being that her other was a sniper and I assumed she wasn't a trained marksman. As I went to look around more, I noticed everyone was geared up, making small final adjustments before they embarked into the training arena.

I cocked my rifle before walking to the arena's double doors, checking behind me to see my team up and ready. I pushed open the pock marked safety glass doors, gun up in my right hand as I swept the room before letting my squad through. I watched them file by me one by one until Lilith came out. Her arm twitched slightly in what I assumed was fear.

"Hey, you been through worse than this, no problem alright?" I said encouragingly.

Her arm twitched again, her head never turning to face me. I watched her carefully as she walked off, knives drawn. I made a mental note to keep an eye on her before falling in behind them. They had come to a wooden door to the next room.

"Give me a sec." said Phoenix, digging into the containment units on his thighs. He pulled out a small wire and stuck it under the door. He then flipped up his tacpad and moved the snake like wire back and forth under the door.

He stood, replacing the device, "All clear." he said, motioning to the door with his left hand.

I nodded, Phoenix creaking open the door and sticking the barrel of his rifle through. We filed in behind him as is standard in these situations. We approached the next door, but just as Phoenix went to digging once more, Lilith twitched. Her head flicked to one side for a moment or two, an arm spasming.

"Are you alright?" asked Crow.

She looked at him with her violet visor as it slowly deteriorated, eaten away by crimson flakes until her visor matched the color of blood.

A robotic voice came over my comms, "Early warning system active. Kikyo Kudo is now active." said the voice before disappearing.

I looked at her as well, her body unmoving until she slowly turned her head back to the wooden door. Phoenix stood frozen in silence, hand still in the containment unit as Lilith-or Kikyo, approached him. She stood in front of the door for a moment before raising her foot and bashing the door open. The room exploded in action as bullets whizzed through the bottlenecked doorway. We all took cover in the room as Kikyo ran straight into the hail of bullets.

As I peeled around to provide cover fire I saw Kikyo dodging, weaving, ducking, and jumping bullets. She pushed off the wall on the left, sending her airborne, drawing fire towards her. I pressed forwards into the room and saw the embodiments of our A.I.s, standing at human height. I hesitated for a moment as I saw Kikyo land on top of a lime colored enemy and dug both knives into his throat. The green, facial features, and clothing faded away as a black endoskeleton fell to the floor, sparking.

As I turned to shoot one of the hostiles Kikyo was already there, snap kicking the old man in the side and throwing a knife, hitting him square in the forehead, the red fading away. I lowered my gun as she moved on to the next A.I., one I was not familiar with, the one that must have been her own. She batted the gun to the side, slicing upwards with her remaining knife and leaving a gash in her simulated throat before another husk fell to the floor. She was grabbed from behind by a silver SPARTAN, to which she slammed him against the wall whilst still on her back, then grabbing his head and flipping him over her, stabbing the back of his neck as he landed. Her head snapped up to focus on an unarmed A.I. clad in a karate gi. He held out his hands in a fighting stance and Kikyo charged. She threw a chair that sat in the room at him, to which he sidestepped. kikyo slid to a stop and went to face him. The man threw a punch.

Lilith outstretched her arm and caught his fist in her hand, bending it backwards and forcing him to his knees before kneeing him in the face, the armor on her knee sticking out and bashing his skull in. The broken skeleton fell onto the floor similarly as all the others as her shield sparked. She wheeled around to face a purple man in a trenchcoat, a smoking magnum in his hand. She stared at him with an intensity unknown even without a visor on.

"Well I'm f-" he said before a knife was shoved up through the bottom of his chin and into his skull.

Kikyo left her knife and drew her gravity hammer as low caliber rounds pinged off of her armor. A maroon colored female let out a battle cry and walked slowly towards her, spraying her down with everything she had. Kikyo simply took a stutter step towards her before bringing the gravity hammer across her stomach. Felicia was sent sprawling through the air, crashing into the wall and putting a large hole in it.

I took a piercing round from a sniper to the chest as my shields flickered empty. I staggered backwards, raising my rifle. Before I could get on target Sarah had gotten locked in a fight with Kikyo. She had the rifle between her and the maniac, wrestling for dominance. it was obvious Kikyo was toying with her as she slung her wherever she deemed necessary.

She must have finally been tired of her game because she spun Sarah to face me, a look of what seemed like genuine terror on her face as two hands wrapped around her head and pulled in two opposite directions. Her neck snapped and her head loosely flopped back into position as she fell. Her color fading away. I hadn't realized I'd dropped my rifle for a few moments before it registered in my mind. I shakily bent down to pick it up, holstering it on my back before looking up at the panting Kikyo. Sarah reappeared in my visor, a look of shock on her face.

"What just happened?" I asked her, my voice slightly shaky.

"Running diagnostics now." said Sarah.

"Seems to be a spike in all of the parts of a brain that deal with aggression, strength and pain tolerance, while all that deal with compassion, logic, and cognitive thinking have been dulled. I've seen it before, says here that this is actually a common side effect of Multiple Personality Disorder." she said, "and when a SPARTAN gets a bit too aggressive…" she said, not needing to finish the sentence.

"Vitals returnign to normal, Lilith Kudo now active." came the same robotic voice from earlier.

Lilith suddenly went weak legged and fell to the ground onto her stomach. She groaned before pushing herself upwards and standing on still wobbly legs.

I went to talk to her, but as I reached her she went to grab my shoulder and ended up falling into me. I caught her, but soon handed her off to Meteor, who lately was having his job cut out for him.

I would get answers later, but either way I was going to get them.

 **Sorry for the late chapter people, but y'know, writing is hella hard. Anyways, glad to finally be able to have an MPD character like me on the team!**

 **Till Next Time,  
** **TheLooneyBin**


	22. Studying Abroad

We were walking along the top of a UNSC Mammoth on a red, rocky planet. My team had been selected to come and support a research group in their study of a forerunner artifact that had recently been discovered. My battle rifle was at the ready, prepared for anything.I didn't know why I had my rifle out, we had rocket turrets on every side of this thing, manned by the only people I trusted. I and Lilith were the only two not on turrets, there were only six. I turned to look at her on the other side of the mammoth, completely stiff in the sandy gusts of Requiem's broadside.

She'd opened up to me about Kikyo after some prodding. But I almost felt bad for digging into all of her personal things. It seemed like it may have brought up bad memories.

I rocked with my thoughts when a marine came up to my side and caught my attention.

"Ma'a-sir, um the commander would like to see you below deck." stuttered the marine. I never could find out why they were so terrified of us.

I thanked and dismissed him as I walked down the stairs and into the hold of the mammoth. Inside, was Commander Palmer,with fireteam Majestic at attention just in front of her. DeMarco scowled at me, I simply kept walking. I stopped at Palmer's side and turned to face her.

"You wanted to see me sir?" I asked, as she turned away from Majestic to now face me.

"I heard you had a run in with Majestic, and I'm terribly sorry for DeMarco's ignorance." she said, "But that's not what I called you down here for. You and Majestic will be working together on this mission by request of the researchers for two fireteams. I don't like it any more than you but orders are orders."

I gulped back a snarl before nodding at Palmer and side-eying DeMarco.

"Alright, since that's understood, let's get to w-"

Palmer was cut short by an explosion from above deck. A marine scattered down the stairs as we all turned at him at once.

"Contact!" he screamed as another explosion rocked the inside of the mammoth.

I heard my squad's rocket turrets responding to the fire as I dashed up the stairs with Paler as Majestic grabbed their weapons and helmets.

As I broke onto the top of the Mammoth sunlight blinded me for a moment before I saw the band of banshees firing on us. The rocket turrets were firing too slow to catch the nimble and swift covenant ships. I ducked as one flew right over my head, this gave me an idea.

I looked around on the top of the Mammoth and found the jetpacks, strapping one on I jogged back to the center of the rumbling beast. I watched as a banshee evaded another barrage of rockets and rolled directly towards the mammoth. As it came around I jumped into the air and felt the jetpack engage, snapping me upwards before I could fall. I cut the thrusters as the banshee flew under me. When I fell I saw the world progress in slow motion, my feet and arms twirling to keep me upright as the banshee's wing came ever so close. I landed on the wing with a thud as it continued flying and I was left clinging to the ship for dear life. The pilot must have noticed me because he rolled the banshee to try and shake me. I gripped the wing even tighter as it rolled, leaving dents in the strange alloy.

As we righted again I grabbed the top of the cockpit and pulled it open, grabbing the startled elite by the nape of the neck and throwing him out the back of the banshee, his screams and grunts being silenced as I jumped into the banshee and the cockpit closed around me.

I opened up team comms, "Fallen, how do I fly this thing?!" I asked frantically as the front of the alien spacecraft showed me a real time image of the outside.

"The two orbs by your hands will accelerate decelerate turn etc. just takes some getting used to!" she yelled as I heard her rocket turret go off once more.

I watched the view turn towards the ground as the banshee slowed and pointed towards the ground. I grabbed the orbs quickly and pulled up on them, the banshee shooting straight upwards.

"Sam you're gonna have to not be so jerky on those controls." said Sarah.

"no shit…" I mumble under my breath as I carefully turned.

"There should be buttons on the orbs, left is the plasma bomb, right are the guns." said Fallen as I once again heard a barrage of rockets over her comm.

"Got it" I confirmed as I turned to watch one of the few banshees finally be struck down by rocket fire.

"Team, we have one friendly banshee in the air, it is now marked in your HUD's, do not fire on this banshee, I repeat, do not fire on this banshee." I said, receiving 7 different acknowledgement lights blinking green in my HUD.

I breathed out before boosting towards my first target and getting on his tail. I fired my guns and watched as his shields flickered and he tried to evade but was just too slow. I cut his wing off in a hail of plasma and watched him spiral into a crash. I cheered before turning back towards the swarm. I fired a plasma bomb into the masses and got a lucky clip on one banshee, taking out it's shields and allowing it to be torn apart by an entire fireteam's worth of gunshots.

"Atta way Majestic!" I cheered to myself once more.

I dipped to the right to find another banshee. As I went to fire the banshee flew upwards and I lost sight of it. I looked around then veered left as I took shots from behind.

"Ah, shit! Fireteam Majestic, Crimson, I got a tail and I can't shake him, need a little assistance!" I said across comms.

I flew towards the Mammoth and watched as several rocket turrets turned to face me. I accelerated past the Mammoth and gave the team a clear shot at the tailing banshee. I heard the banshee be obliterated by rocket fire. I swerved back around and picked off a few more with the guns before taking down another with the plasma bomb. I looped back around to watch the final banshee taken down by a rocket launcher from the deck. I sighed in relief as I pulled the banshee over the Mammoth. I let it continue flying as I opened the cockpit and slid out, activating my jetpack and touching down on the top of the friendly vehicle again, happy to be back on the ground.

I was greeted by cheers and high-spirits from all of the crew, SPARTANs included. smiled and laughed along with them as the Mammoth slowed to a stop about a mile later.

"This your stop ladies, good luck." said Commander Palmer as both Fireteams hopped off the Mammoth and onto the sand. Both fireteams took a knee in the sand as the Mammoth pulled away and around a corner, out of sight.

I pulled up my TacPad and looked for the location of the researchers, finally finding them i sent the coordinates to my fireteam without explanation, though none was needed.

I looked to DeMarco, "Your team need these coordinates?" I asked as politely as I could muster.

DeMarco looked up from his TacPad from which he seemed to be frustrated at, "Nah, nah I'll find em'." he said spitefully.

I shrugged and looked at the other four members who nodded behind his back. I gave a quick nod of understanding and sent the coordinates over quickly. I turned back to my squad as Majestic brought together a plan while their leader looked for the coordinates still. I chuckled at his frustration and stood.

"Crimson,we are Oscar Mike, Majestic, you coming?" I asked with a playful lilt to my voice as DeMarco almost shook with fury.

"Fine, send me the coordinates." he said with a huff.

I sent him the coordinates with a low throated laugh and walked off with my team.


	23. Colors

I walked in a more relaxed fashion than normal, not really any reason to be alert. My gun was pointed loosely towards the sand, my feet subconsciously trodding along the path to the researchers' encampment. I listened to the chat in my helmet, listening to the sound of the playful mockery, poking and prodding at one another. I chuckled to myself as they continued this, Sarah chuckling right along with me.

As we broke the crest of the hill which we had trudged up, we could see a small group of tents surrounding a much larger one.

"Got the encampment in sight." I said over comms.

I got all the normal oks, got it, yep, alright, and any other affirmation you could think of, even an about damn time from fireteam Majestic's absolutely flawless leader. I rolled my eyes in my visor to my own thoughts, continuing down the hill and into the small makeshift base. We were greeted by a short, chubby, bald man wearing glasses and a white lab coat, stained with black marks.

"Welcome SPARTANs! Thank you for coming on such short notice." said the man, seemingly excited about something.

"No...Problem." I said, slightly deterred by his flamboyance.

"Wel, come in, come in." he said, shuffling back into the largest tent.

I turned my head to face the team, watching as almost everyone shrugged their shoulders. I sighed and pushed the fabric aside so that I could walk inside. As I cleared the canvas I saw a metal table with a small ovular object lain across it. I looked at the intricate designs, outlined in yellow. They had definitely been right about it being forerunner tech.

"We've been unable to get a response from this artifact, though it is most definitely a capsule of some sort." said another scientist in the tent as the rest of my team pooled in.

"What does this thing have to do with us?" I asked.

"It doesn't have anything to do with you." said one scientist, a rude tone to his voice.

How some people could be so arrogant towards SPARTANs I had no idea, but either way Jasmine wouldn't have it.

"Hey asshole," she said, pushing her way to the front of the group, "watch your mouth." she said.

The larger scientist went red faced and turned away with a look of rage on his face. Another scientist gasped and pointed at the artifact.

'Look!" he exclaimed.

Fallen turned to look along with the rest of us as the capsule began to pulsate yellow light.

"I do believe her proximity activated it." said another scientist, scribbling down notes in his notebook.

"Take another step closer dear." said the scientist who'd originally let us in.

Fallen looked around for a moment, turning to look at me. I gave a curt nod and she took another step forward. The pulsating sped up as she took another step, and another, until the light was constantly bright. Fallen seemed to be unable to stop herself as she reached out a hand to touch the strange capsule. I watched her finger touch the slick metallic surface, then the tent was filled with a brilliant blue light.

I didn't know I'd been thrown back until my back hit sand. I quickly scrambled to my feet and heard the moaning and groaning of scientists getting to their feet, but what I heard over it all was the scream of one girl in particular. Her screams weren't high pitched and fearful, rather raspy and sounded terrible. She sounded as if she was being burned from the inside out. I rushed to her side where Meteor and Athena were already kneeling over her prone form. She wouldn't stop rolling left and right to give us a good look.

"Dragon, Crow, hold her down!" I screamed, trying to give our medic something to work with.

Dragon and Crow were over in seconds, each grabbing onto something with either hand and pinning it to the ground. She still struggled to squirm as they held her, she thrashed her head to and fro wildly.

"I've got her head!" I yelled as the scientists and Majestic gathered about to watch, though none could do anything to help.

I scrambled to her head and pushed down on the visor to pin her head to the ground before Meteor frantically began speaking in what seemed like another language.

I could make out a few words as he jabbered to himself a bunch of medical procedures, a few came across quite clearly though, "Take her helmet off."

I reached around to either side of her neck and pulled on the release catches and tossed her helmet aside. Jasmine had her eyes wide open, still bucking to try and relieve any sort of pain. I looked at where her neck met her chin and stared in shock. The veins in her neck were glowing a bright blue, unlike anything I'd ever seen, they tapered into nonexistence just above her chin but continued downwards who knows how far.

"Get it off! Get it off!" she screamed before her cries became more of a struggled sob as she fought to get away from what had grabbed hold of her.

Her eyes rolled back in her head and she stopped struggling a few moments later, I immediately stuck my fingers to her neck and felt the out of this world rate of her heart pulse up through my hand.

"She passed out." I said, the barren landscape going deathly silent as her screams were cut off.

I sat back on my knees and watched the light slowly drain from her veins. We were all breathing heavily, everyone else standing around like a bunch of idiots. Lilith looked down on her with a hand up to her faceplate. I looked around at all the eggheads that were standing around _taking notes_. I tried to remain calm as I watched these researchers do exactly what they do, but it made me so angry.

I didn't know how long it was before Fallen came to but it was enough for the eggheads to move her onto the table and scan her. Not even they could figure out what was wrong. When she did come to she woke awoke violently and suddenly, breathing heavily. She acted as if she was still in pain but soon realized she was fine. I had tensed where I stood and almost made a move for her, but relaxed when I saw her sigh a breath of relief.

I waked over to her and handed her the stalker helmet I had stripped from her. She took it with a smile and slid it back onto her head, wincing away from a doctor that made a move to help her up. The doctor backed away defensively as she sat up and stepped down.

"You alright?" I asked as we walked outside.

"Yeah, just feel a bit weird. I'll be fine though." she said with confidence.

Her confidence convinced me and I walked her into the tent where the rest of the team sat. She accepted the hugs with restrained flinches and closed fists, sitting down as if nothing had happened afterwards.

Just like Fallen to be that way, back to the mission I suppose.


	24. Heroes

"Well this isn't exactly the highlight of my week." said Fallen, giving an exasperated sigh as her feet pounded rhythmically into the sand.

The day had taken a turn down the drain, as we were needed to escort the team of researchers to what was assumed to be another artifact. I gave off a slight chuckle in response to her comment. Fireteam Majestic was at the back of the group, obviously bickering amongst themselves. I scoffed before turning to look ahead once more. We were walking along a small plateau which lead down into a cavern that was suspected of holding the artifact.

I instinctively closed my eyes as the wind stirred up the loose sand and flung it against my visor. Sarah enlarged a small window in the top left of my HUD as usual, the same smile on her face.

She sighed, "Real eventful out here isn't it?"

I chuckled once more, "Depends on your definition of eventful."

I thought for a moment, and remembered a question I'd been wanting to ask ever since I'd gotten Sarah, "Sarah, when I first implemented you, what were the visions that I saw?" I asked.

Sarah's face drooped a bit, her eyes becoming a bit more solemn and her smile slowly fading into a thin line.

"Those were my memories. My flash cloned brain's memories anyways." she said, avoiding looking directly at me and brushing a strand of hair from her face.

"Really? What year was your brain cloned?" I asked, now intrigued.

"I was originally scanned in 2016, an exact digital replica of my brain, my entire consciousness was uploaded to a computer. And 500 years later here I am." she said with a strained expression on her face.

"Wow, 2016! That was ages ago!" I quietly exclaimed, "Why were you scanned?"

"For research, I was dying, and they wanted a brain scan, so I said fuck it. Fuck it all."

"Wow… I'm sorry." I responded, no knowledge of how to deal with this situation, or what to say.

"So, marines huh?"

"What?"

"You were a marine, back in 2016, were you not?" I asked

"I was, why?"

"Just trying to make conversation."

"Well then, let's talk. yes I was a marine, and yes that's how I died."

"How?"

"I was in Syria, moving in to escort refugees onto a boat to move them to America. I checked each of them for explosives, weapons, y'know the drill. Anyways, I was patting down one man when the man, no not man, animal behind him, pulled out a detonator and screamed something like 'Aloha Snackbar'. That was an old earth marine joke by the way."

"Ok, but what happened next?" I felt sort of bad for prodding even further but the subject interested me.

"Well, I rushed him just as he pushed the button. I was the only one within 20 yards still alive, at that point anyways. My vest caught most of the shrapnel, but the shock wave had broken three of my ribs, which punctured one of my lungs. A few pieces of shrapnel had also slipped past my vest and under my arm. Some of the shrapnel was a bit too close to an artery and I bled out three days later. They performed surgery to stop the bleeding, clamped it up and everything but it just wasn't enough with the rest of my injuries. I was scanned a day before I died."

I couldn't find the words at this point. Sarah seemed about on the brink of tears as she went to speak again.

"My uh, my boyfriend back in Georgia must have really missed me. My mom and dad too. All thanks to those muslim pricks!" she screamed into my helmet.

I recoiled for a moment, "Well it wasn't really the muslims' fault as a whole was it?"

"Well no, it was a large group of radicals. They'd called themselves ISIS and had been terrorizing the world for a few years then."

"Why hadn't you already killed the ISIS group so the rest of the muslim people could live in peace? The rest of the world really?"

"Because they fought differently than any other army. They didn't wear a uniform and have armies. They hid in crowds and planted bombs. They fought like cowards, they wouldn't stand up and fight like men, they didn't fight at all. As soon as troops would roll through suddenly no one was military, but the next day the same people would shoot innocents on the street, or go bomb another country because they were generous enough to take in refugees from their forsaken country. And I guess I'm just a bit prejudice because of it."

"I could see how you would be, but that doesn't make it right." I said, trying to calm her.

"I know, I know it isn't right and I'm sorry for it, but no matter what anyone says, I will always hate radical scum."

I shifted uncomfortably in my armor, kind of unsettled by the conversation. I wasn't alive when all this went down so I couldn't lay down too much justice, but I didn't really want to upset her either, she'd been through plenty as it was.

"Where do you stand on religion Sam?" she asked.

I thought for a moment, where did I stand?

"Well I'm Christian, grew up in a Christian household and whatnot, but you know how that goes. I haven't prayed or anything for years now. I just kinda believe he's up there you know?"

She scoffed, "I believe you're entitled to your opinion and all but I've come to the point to where I believe there is no god. What kind of god would do this to someone?"

I didn't really have much to say. I wasn't a bible thumper by any means, and I wasn't fixing to try and talk some wisdom to her, not my strong point. I kind of let the conversation sit there, looming over us in the silence. I internally sighed a breath of relief when the comm started up again.

"Site should be close now, be alert we don't know of the hostile threat in this area yet."

"Roger that." I responded to DeMarco, who had finally figured out how to work the maps.

We reached the edge of the plateau and we could see over the edge. There was a winding pathway carved into the side of the plateau that led down into the ravine. I gathered up my fireteam and walked over to Majestic's.

"Alright, I've got a plan. if you guys can split up and take the front and back of the researchers, me and my squad will go ahead and make our way to the bottom quickly and scout ahead. We'll flash the red acknowledgement three times if anything goes wrong."

DeMarco wanted to deny my plan, I could see it in his stance, but he could tell it was the better course of action.

"Fine, you guys go, we'll wait for you to reach the bottom before starting."

"Won't be necessary." I said with a smirk, "Crimson, follow my lead." I said over comms.

I turned and started off at a jog towards the edge. I kept running until my feet left the ground and I began to fall. I looked down and saw the pathway rising quickly. I slammed to the ground and absorbed the shock with my knees. I heard seven more ground shattering pounds beside me and I smiled inwardly as I made another jump. We did this about four times to the bottom and looked up to see Majestic just now coming halfway down the first path. I flashed my green light to him, to which I received one back from Thorne. I turned and gestured to move as my team formed a line beside me.

We approached the large opening in the ravine with raised guns, stepping carefully into the entrance.

"Standard 5 meter spread, let's go." I said as the line steadily widened.

We stepped through small puddles on the ground, dripping down from the ceiling. I crunched through a pile of small rocks on the ground. We walked a bit more before there came a curve in the wall. We followed the curve into a larger, spherical cavern, containing a large glowing artifact.

I opened comms with Majestic, "Artifact located, all cl-" I was cut short by the sound of a scream.

I left the comm open on accident as I wheeled around to face Kathryn. She raised her sniper rifle and fired a round into the head of a crawler on the wall.

"Contact!" I yelled over two comm channels unknowingly.

I raised my battle rifle and felt the familiar jerk of the gun in my hands as I fired at some crawlers that seemed to pour in from nowhere. I slammed another clip home and ripped through several more crawlers before catching a guardian mid flight. I destroyed it in threes straight rounds, slicing off both of its wings.

"Guardians, that means knights people!" yelled Phoenix.

"Solid Copy!" I yelled in return.

I saw Crow in the corner of my eye, spraying down a wall covered in crawlers as a knight appeared behind him.

"Crow, 6o'clock!"

He spun on his heel to fire just as the drum mag clicked empty. He threw down the gun and was in the process of drawing his shotgun when the promethean grabbed him. The knight seemed unphased by the bullets that pinged off of his back.

"Let go of me you forsaken beast!" yelled Crow.

And then he was gone.

Just like that. The promethean had grabbed him and teleported away. He was gone.

"We lost Crow." I said, my voice much too low for a combat situation.

Radio silence was maintained for two solid minutes before someone else spoke.

"Help!" was screamed over the comms from a distressed Athena.

We all turned to fire on whatever had caused such a disturbance, but she too was gone.

"Kat!" screamed Meteor as he realized her absence.

"Fuck! They got Kat!" he screamed through obviously gritted teeth.

Meteor grunted over the comms as he transitioned from his drained light rifle to a fresh storm rifle. He began to shoot, but he was getting careless with his movements. He shot at random things, anything that moved. He whirled to shoot more and looked into the skull face of a promethean knight.

"Come on!" he screamed in the knight's face, then he too was gone.

"What's happening!? We're losing men quick!" I exclaimed, merely stating the obvious.

"I do not know! But they do not seem to stop coming!" yelled Dragon.

"Behind you!" yelled Phoenix, pointing in my direction. I turned to suffer the same fate as Meteor, just as the screaming face of the knight flaked away in yellow shards. Fallen appeared with her DMR in one hand and a knife in the other. She nodded at me before continuing on. I made a note to thank her later.

"Early warning system active, Kikyo Kudo now a-a-a-a-a-" came the mechanical voice as we all turned to see Lilith's crimson red visor headbutt a promethean away before being grabbed from behind and taken away.

"We're down to Four!" Phoenix yelled.

"I'm sending the signal to Majestic to stay back!" I relayed over the chaos.

"Too late Crimson, hope we aren't too late for the party." resonated Thorne's voice through my helmet.

Majestic came around the corner guns blazing, Paul DeMarco leading the pack. They wielded their weapons with an impressive amount of coordination and skill. Soon enough though I heard what I'd dreaded would soon come across comms.

"They got Grant sir!" came the voice of whom I'd recognized to be Hoya.

"Is she dead?" asked Thorne.

"Gone!" came the response.

I looked around the room at the chaos that was unfolding and prayed silently to myself for the first time in a long time.

 _Our father_

Another burst from my rifle.

 _Thou art in heaven_

The sound of a grenade

 _Hallowed be thy name_

I slammed another clip into the port.

 _Thy kingdom come_

Hoya was gone, the final blast from his shotgun echoing around the room.

 _Thy will be done_

I shot a promethean knight off of the back of Thorne.

 _On earth as it is in heaven_

I beat a crawler from mid jump, smashing the butt of my rifle into it's head before continuing my bursts of controlled fire.

 _Give us this day our daily bread_

I slid away from a promethean's grasp and sliced a knife into the back of its neck.

 _And forgive us our trespasses_

I came back to back with Thorne for a moment, turning and using his shoulder as a mount to take out a guardian in the process of resurrecting a knight.

 _As we forgive those who trespass against us_

Madsen was ripped from this world, losing his grip on his sniper rifle as he was teleported away

 _Lead us not to temptation_

I grabbed dove for Dragon's hand just as it slipped away from me, he too disappearing.

 _But deliver us from evil_

I just barely saved DeMarco from his certain fate by ripping him from the promethean's grasp.

 _For god is the kingdom_

A crawler pins Thorne as Fallen shoots it off.

 _The power_

I jumped up and forcefully drug a guardian to the ground, ripping it apart with my hands.

 _And the glory_

I was saved once more, this time by DeMarco, who shot the knight just as it was lunging for me.

 _Forever and ever_

Me, DeMarco, and Thorne backed against each other and continued our fire, attempting to hold them back.

 _Amen_

I looked to my right and saw Fallen in the middle of the floor, grabbing at her chest and neck, screaming as crawlers swarmed her.

"Jasmine!" I yelled with an intensity I'd never felt before.

She ripped off her helmet to reveal the same glowing veins from earlier that day, and I watched as she grabbed at her chest, light seeped through any break in her armor. She suddenly screamed a loud and pain filled scream as the room was flooded with the same light as the one in the tent. As the light cleared, Fallen was left lying in the middle of the floor, surrounded by the inactive husks of crawlers, guardians, and knights alike. We all lowered our weapons as we found all of the prometheans had dropped, every last one. The electronics in my HUD were going haywire as well. I ripped my helmet off and jogged over to Fallen who had once again fallen unconscious.

"Is she ok?" came Thorne's voice, both of the remaining members of Majestic losing their helmets as well.

"I think so, she's passed out before from this but I'm sure you would know that already." I said as I picked up her helmet in one hand and slung her body over my shoulder with the other.

"Thorne, would you mind grabbing my helmet and holstering my rifle?" I asked, shifting Jasmine's, miniscule but existent, weight on my shoulders.

"No problem." He responded.

I felt my rifle snap onto its magnetic holster before I nodded a thanks and headed for the exit of the cave.

"So what now?" asked DeMarco.

"We find our Fireteams."


	25. Part of Me

It was a long while before Fallen stirred on my shoulders again, awaking as if she'd only been sleeping.

"W-what happened?" she asked groggily.

"You saved us. Everyone that's left anyways." I answered.

She turned her head to face Thorne and DeMarco, Thorne giving a small wave with my helmet, DeMarco nodding in her direction.

"C-could you put me down?" she asked.

I crouched and bent at the waist to let her off of my shoulders, catching herself with her legs. As I went to stand once more she grabbed at my arm and stumbled a bit before getting her legs back under her and being able to stand, wobbily done, but done nonetheless. She grabbed her DMR and used it to prop herself against for a moment before standing straight up.

She motioned for her helmet and I tossed it to her, her hands immediately slipping it onto her head with trained precision. Thorne tossed me my own helmet which I slipped on as well, the two Majestic members having replaced theirs a while back. Fallen took a deep breath before pushing onwards.

"So where we headed now?" she asked.

"We have to RTB for retasking but I have a plan to get our fireteams back." I responded.

"Well what were we going to do if we hadn't done this 'plan' of yours?" asked DeMarco.

"We would have been without the rest of our fireteam and we probably would have been teamed up. They can't waste time nor money finding 9 soldiers out of millions when you have an entire galaxy to search. Not like their position could be localized."

DeMarco fell silent and began to brood once more. I turned to address him, finally tired of his bullshit.

"Ok look DeMarco it's obvious you don't like me and I don't like you but to get our teams back we are going to have to work together. I know you have good in you, you've proven it twice today. One when you sent your team after mine and secondly when you saved my life. No-"

"I saved you so I wouldn't owe you shit for saving me."

"Now we both know that you're talking out your ass. Can you at least pretend to like me just until we get our teams back. From then on we can talk only when absolutely necessary. Deal?"

DeMarco snarled in his helmet, "Fine."

I nodded and turned before walking on towards the researchers' base where they had already fled to once they'd heard gunfire. Thorne gave a small chuckle, earning him a jab from DeMarco. Thorne laughed it off and kept walking.

"What exactly is the plan Ardent?" asked Thorne, his question sincere.

"We're gonna need a signal booster so that we can scan this entire planet to see if they're still here. Find the signals from their HUDs. After that we take a pelican and go find them. That's all I've got so far." I responded.

"Sounds like a plan to me, but who's flying?"

"That would be me." piped Fallen.

"Well then the plan is sound. I'm liking it."

I smiled to myself and continued walking, the tents of the research camp coming into view in the distance. We wouldn't need to ask very long to get a signal booster from the eggheads, though the pelican may be a slightly different story. As the four approached the tents the researchers gave only small looks of recognition before returning to whatever they were doing. I walked to the nearest researcher at the moment and tapped him on the shoulder.

As he whirled around with a face of frustration suddenly turned to fear I spoke, "We need a signal boost, one that'll cover this planet's surface, think you can do that?" I asked.

He nodded frantically and pushed the glasses farther up the bridge of his nose before turning and beginning to grab things before walking away quickly. I sighed and walked to the tents that served as quarters as of now, we each had our own small tent with nothing but the necessities for a human in the field. A bed. A SPARTAN didn't need a bed but it was highly appreciated. I removed my helmet and sat it on the ground, plopping onto the bed and running a hand through my dishevelled hair. Letting out a sigh, I rubbed my eyes to keep myself focused and grabbed my dogtags from out of my chestplate. Pulling out the small chain that held three small items I thumbed over the one I had put on there myself before flipping over my issued tags.

Thomas

Samantha B.

370-27-9852

B Pos

Christian

I passed the two metal tags through my fingers and then finally let my own charm land on my palm. The small metallic rectangle was closed at the moment, but I took my enormous fingers to the small object and snapped it open, looking at the picture inside. I looked at the small picture of my mom on one side, the same one I'd had the day the covenant came. The to a picture of my dad on the other side, a smile playing across his face as well. They almost seemed to be smiling at each other, I smiled with them before looking up to meet Fallen's eyes.

"Hey." she said feebly, her voice scratchy from the days in the desert.

"Hi, how long have you been standing there?" I asked.

She shrugged and I gestured for her to sit. She sat next to me, the bed protesting against our combined weights.

"Family?" she asks, gesturing to the pendant.

I nod, holding it towards her or her to see.

She looked down on my parents and muttered one word that made my heart jump in my chest, "Claire…" escaped her lips like a ghost.

Her eyes were widened and she looked closer at the pendant to make sure it was her. I looked up at her face and asked, "How did you know my mother?" my voice having a bit more venom than I'd intended.

"There was a woman on the ship that saved me, her name was Claire and she looked just like this." she said defensively, pointing at the picture of my mom.

"Marine?" she nodded, "Medic?" she nodded again, "That's her alright, that's Mom. Ironic how she was there to save you when I wasn't isn't it?" I asked with a chuckle.

She seemed distant and I could tell, "Hey, Jas, you alright?"

She snapped back into reality and looked up at me, "That was the day Claire died." she said, her tone low and her face solemn.

I let my smile slowly droop from my face, my features losing all of the hard edges that I'd retained and I searched Jasmine's face for any sort of assurance that she was kidding. She wasn't. I looked back down at my pendant and thumbed over the picture and let a small tear make its way to the brink of my eye, trying to not allow it to spill over.

"I'm sorry." said Jasmine.

I took a deep breath and looked back over at her and attempted to keep my voice from cracking, "It's not your fault. I know. It's just… I love her so much y'know." through all my efforts my voice still cracked on the last few words I spoke.

I did have just enough strength to keep tears from spilling from my eyes, that is until Jasmine's hand found my shoulder and I let out the first tear, a choked sob coming from somewhere deep within me. I cut off anymore sobs before I could completely break in front of her. I'd kept it all bottled up this long, why not a bit more.

I bit back another sob and turned and to Jasmine once again, "Could you tell me how it happened, h-how she died?" I asked.

She slowly nodded and took a deep breath, "Your mom, Claire, I didn't really get to know her but i could tell from the short minutes I'd known her how nice she was, how caring." I smiled, she was right, "She died saving people, like me, her squadmates, every person there. She saved them. She came in through the wall like some sort of crazy superhero and grabbed me, checking me for injuries. That's when the firefight broke loose. The entire time needles and burning plasma soared over her head she was saving people, dragging them to and fro, getting them off the ship. I watched from where I'd huddled away. An elite or a grunt, or a jackal, something, threw a plasma into the middle of the circle of the circle of marines I'd taken shelter in. In a hallway with nowhere to go she threw the man she was carrying to safety and dove on the grenade, and saved us all. Seconds later I was shot and that's how I ended up with this." she said, motioning to her scar.

She smiled, "I don't remember much between then and signing up for the marines but I'd always remembered Claire. She saved my life."

I smiled along with her as she turned towards me. I pulled her into a hug, which she returned.

I spoke into her hair, "I always knew my mother went down a hero."

"Well she definitely did that." Jasmine responded.

"You're a good story teller." I said as I broke the hug

She blushed and shrugged, "When you don't have anyone to talk to you find creative ways to entertain yourself."

I smiled and she looked up at me.

"I really am sorry." she said.

"Me too." I responded.

"For what?"

"This."

I cupped her face in my hands and brought my lips down to meet hers in a kiss, my first. She instinctively grabbed around my neck to keep her from falling over before realizing what had actually happened. She took a moment before kissing me back, removing my fears and relieving the stress I'd had. For such a small girl, she was strong, pulling me down to her. I say up, bringing her with me and setting her on my lap. We kept kissing, a desperate attempt to copy what I'd seen on the movies from when I was a kid. I longed for the tingling sensation I got in my entire body when her lips met mine. I longed for it even more when she broke away, breathing hard and wrapping her legs around my waist, arms around my neck. She rested her forehead on my own as I did the same, and we sat there for what seemed like eternities all bottled up into a few short minutes. I caught fleeting glimpses from her eyes, her cheeks a red that could match the red stripes across her chestplate.

I blushed as well, trying to reign in my breathing, "Like I said - I'm sorry." I uttered out between breaths.

"For what?" asked Fallen with a smile, her breathing just as labored.

We shared a light chuckle and inhaled the mixture of our breaths, almost like she was now a part of me.

I chuckled at the thought and pulled Jasmine in for another kiss.

 _Don't kill me pls._


	26. AWOL

I gathered my things and straightened my hair up as I rose from the bed. The signal amplifier was ready and the next supply run by Pelican was due soon. Jasmine had left in a hurry when Thorne had peeked said from outside the tent that the amp was ready. I fixed my helmet onto my head and rolled my neck a bit. My lips still longed for Fallen's touch but I brushed it aside, for now, and opened the tent's flap, walking back into the sandy terrain of Requiem. Every footprint I left in the sand left me one step closer to the retrieval of my team. I watched as the landing area was prepped for landing and supply retrieval, thinking about what we were going to have to do. It was treason, what we were considering, but I'd figure out one way or another to talk everyone out of this, I'd take full responsibility. I'd have to. I sighed to myself before walking up to the rest of our small group, Throne holding a small black box in his right hand. I looked t each of them before starting.

"Alright here's the plan." I spoke, each of them becoming very attentive, "Thorne and DeMarco I'm going to need you two to take out the marines that will be on board, they'll probably stand at either edge of the ramp and talk to each other, they'll be bored and off gurad so you shouldn't have a problem. Fallen, you're getting the pilot and I'll get the co-pilot. When you've knocked each of your targets out drag them inside the Pelican."

"Well they aren't going with us." retorted DeMarco.

I looked at him, "You really need to start letting me finish what I'm saying."

He crossed his arms as if saying 'fine', which would be so him to do, "Alright, once they're inside Thorne and Fallen you're each going to carry two of them, me and DeMarco will distract the people running the supplies. We're keeping one crate of rations on the pelican with us."

DeMarco seemed a bit more satisfied by this, Thorne gave a cheer and Fallen's stance just immediately let me know she was smiling. I too smiled o myself and clapped my hands together.

"Well, let's get to work!"

I watched Thorne drag the struggling marine around the side of the pelican in a sleeper hold until he passed out. He signaled to us to move up. Me and Fallen gave each other a glance before sprinting the distance to Thorne and, opening the side door to the pelican, hopped in. The pilot turned to face us.

"What are you doing in h-" he was cut short by Fallen's well placed blow to the head, followed by mine to the co-pilot's dragging them from the cockpit and into the cargo hold, hiding them behind some boxes of scientific instruments. Fallen went and threw the other side door open as I grabbed Thorne's man from his arms and drug him into the hold and placed him next to the other. Fallen set another marine down on the other side as DeMarco and I jumped out of the other side of the pelican and ushered the other two, bodies slung over their shoulders, to my tent. We both rushed to the back of the pelican and looked at the two workers on duty.

"Why don't you guys take a break." said DeMarco, gesturing to a bench a few meters away.

One gladly took the offer but another looked at us suspiciously, "Why?"

DeMarco gulped and I butted in, "Looke like you could use one, we're SPARTANs, called here to help, that's what we're doing."

The man finally gave in but watched us suspiciously from the bench while we unloaded boxes. I nodded at DeMarco, who nodded back as Fallen and Thorne came up the hill to the landing pad and jumped in the Pelican. I slipped into the vehicle followed by DeMarco, each grabbing one last box before setting it out and slipping in for the final time. The one box of rations remaining was sitting in the corner, Thorne atop it. Fallen was checking all of the systems and such, I didn't know a lot of what was going on up front but watched anyways. Thorne was messing with his tac-pad with the small black box hooked up to it. He nodded to me and I knew what it meant. He had found them.

I almost squealed in excitement but decided against it, slamming my fist against the button to close the hatch on the back. The workers scrambled to their feet and called for the guards. I watched them as the engines roared to life and the hatch closed, both side doors closing at Throne and DeMarco's hands. I sat in the back and felt the pelican rise and then shoot off towards the planet's atmosphere.

 _Meanwhile on Infinity_

"Commander Palmer sir!" came the voice of a marine behind her.

She turned to face him and sighed, "What is it Mitchell?"

"The remnants of Fireteams Majestic and Crimson have just been reported Absent Without Leave. Last seen hijacking a UNSC supply pelican at the research base they were stationed at."

She was taken aback by the news but showed no physical signs of it, nodding in thought before dismissing the marine. he saluted and shuffled away. She sighed again and ran her hand down her face.

"Problem Sarah?" came the voice of Thomas Lasky.

"Another rogue SPARTAN team to date." she said, "Two this time."

"Well they're hardly a fireteam anymore, I think they've gone after them." he responded.

"Sir?"

"It's what I would've done." he said, lowering his voice to speak to himself now, "It's what I did."

"With all due respect sir they've committed treason."

"Now Commander Palmer they are, at the moment, Absent Without Leave, there will be consequences, but let's not let their bravery go unnoticed, after all, the best SPARTAN team to ever come into existence has been AWOL numerous amounts of time and they're out there right now, taking back a UNSC vessel for us."

"Well Blue Team and these two teams are a completely different matter sir."

"Are they?"

She didn't know how to respond, giving only a small look of thought.

"We aren't machines Sarah, we're just humans." he said, giving off an aura that immediately closed the conversation

Sarah Palmer walked out of the room and down the hall to her own quarters, where she could watch the helmet cams of the SPARTANs in the field. She saw all of the static filled screens of the SPARTANs M.I.A. but she could see from here what the rest of them would be doing.

She'd stop them if she felt it necessary.

 _Back in the Pelican_

Thorne had successfully triangulated the signals from their helmets, finding them still on Requiem, just not exactly _on_ Requiem. We'd picked up a signal from inside the shield world, and if the Master-Chief could do make it in and out alive, why couldn't we?

I sighed and ran a hand up my visor before standing from my sitting position on the floor.

"Fallen, you find an entrance yet?" I asked.

"Nada, but I'm looking."

I nodded and removed my helmet, no point in having it on now. I looked over to see DeMarco sitting atop the crate and fiddling his thumbs in concentration, his brow creased in worry, or doubt, or fear, or all of the above. I walked over to him and crouched down to eye level.

"You alright?" I asked, sure we'd had our differences but differences or not we were on the same side.

He nodded unconvincingly, biting the inside of his cheek and redirecting his gaze.

"DeMarco, I can see something's up, just tell me."

He shook his head no and I huffed in frustration before standing and turning to walk away.

"I'm worried about them is all." he mumbled behind me.

I stopped and turned my head over my shoulder, "Me too." was my simple response, walking up to the cockpit's steps and placing an arm on either seat.

I looked at Fallen before staring out of the cockpit's windows, watching the world blur by.


	27. Phoenix's Past

I remembered my last moments in what was my last anchor to reality. I was firing away with my battle rifle when I felt a sudden tug, away from everyone. No one was turned towards me to help, or to hear my attempt to scream for help, drowned out by the yellowish void I was sucked into. I felt as if my body had been compressed into a tennis ball, and then ripped apart into millions of pieces, finally resurfacing as a whole body. I came to my senses in a place I hadn't seen in 15 years. My home. Everything seemed a bit off though, out of place, almost out of focus.

I brushed it aside and looked at my surroundings. everything was bigger too, now that I looked at it. The wooden floors and forest green painted walls of my dining room were evident. I looked down and saw I was no longer in armor, but merely a pair of cargo shorts and a t-shirt. Everything was beginning to seem stranger by the second. I realized now everything else wasn't larger, but that I was smaller, the size of a normal human. And I was wearing what used to be my favorite shirt,a graphic tee with a picture of a Green SPARTAN duel wielding SMG's. I stretched out the shirt and looked down at it. My arms were skinny, not muscled much at all. I slid my chair out and stood up, just as my parents walked in carrying plates and food.

"Food's ready Jordan!" piped off my mom.

I stared at her with a dumbfounded look before sitting back down cautiously.

"Everything alright son? You look like you've seen a ghost." said my dad with a chuckle.

I remained silent as a plate was sat in front of me, piled high with portions of my favorite food. I shook my head to myself.

"This isn't real." I whispered.

No one seemed to notice. I stood from my chair again, both of my "parents" watching me curiously.

"This isn't real, neither of you are real!" I said, becoming defensive.

My mom seemed offended, my father seeming concerned.

"What do you mean son? We're both perfectly real." he said, his eyes seeming genuinely caring.

I balled my fists and closed my eyes and willed it to go away. I pushed the images away to the darkest recesses of my mind and tried to push the fake reality in front of me out of existence.

I timidly opened my eyes and saw the same dining room table, the same walls and shelves. There were no more parents, and everything seemed darker, mustier. There was a certain filth to the air. I felt the ground shake beneath my feet and i remembered. I remembered what happened on this day. I suddenly wished I hadn't willed the first image away. I felt my feet move beneath me and force me forward though I had no say in the matter. I knew where I was going but i didn't want to go, didn't want to relive the events of this terrible terrible day. My feet shifted to a sprint, my arms pumping rhythmically though I attempted to stop them. I couldn't close my eyes, couldn't move my mouth. I was a spectator to my own life, watching the exact events unfold from which had already been unfolded. I busted into my parents bedroom, my younger brother David appearing behind me, his smaller forearm wrapped in my hand. I shoved him into the closet, a whimper escaping his lips before my feet drove me into action once more. I grabbed the black steel knife from my parents bedroom drawer and ran downstairs. I was returning to try and help barricade the door, this is, before I heard a crack of wood and the whirr of a plasma blade. My mind knew what was happening, but my former body didn't so it ran into the room and saw what had unfolded. There, my mother was lain across the ground, slaughtered like a pig. she hadn't even any time to scream. My father was of course out leading the defensive, him being a captain, though this was one of the more unimportant details to me.I felt the knife tremble in my hand and my blood boil all over again as fear slowly shook out of me and was replaced by a violent rage.

My fingers wrapped tightly around the form fitted blade before i grit my teeth, closed my eyes and fought back the tears before opening them once more to see the elite zealot, as I now knew it, with it's back towards me.

I let out a pained battle cry and leaped atop the elite's back. It worted in surprise as I dug the cold black steel into the flesh of it's neck. I twisted and yanked the knife out, covered in purple blood. I was thrown from his back and into the nearest wall, the shelves falling from the drywall and onto the floor below. I stood again, dusting off debris from the shattered sheetrock and charged the elite. He let out a laugh and sliced upwards with his sword, trailing a long, burning scar up my face. I cried out in agony as my skin was seared and torn through, my nose missing a large chunk from the bridge. I felt every feeling of pain without the assistance of an adrenaline rush but my body, seemingly possessed, continued. The elites sword flickered and died and as it struggled to remove the plasma rifle from its holster I charged him. I flicked the knife over in my hand and prepared to swing. I swung upwards, just as I was caught just below the chin by the elite's arm, sending me sprawling back once more. I had expected to bleed by now, I remembered that much. I was lucky, now that I realize it, that the plasma cauterized my wound.

I felt the familiar absence of the knife, being yanked from my hand as I was flung across the room. I also heard the familiar thud of the elite's body hitting the floor as it died from the knife that had been shoved up through its chin. I yanked the knife from the elite's skull and yanked my shirt off. I wrapped it around my face, letting one eye be free to let me see. The shirt pressed tightly against my face gave me some relief but not much. I sprinted back to get David and didn't allow him to see my face. I forced him through the windows despite his cries to wait for Mum. As he plopped to the ground I came out next, rolling into the stepping onto the ground and running through the devastated city, all the way until we found the first pelican evac there was. I could do nothing to ease David's crying as the city turned into a spec behind us.

All this time I was reliving my painful past instead of accepting the sweet lie, I was unaware of the situation I was actually in. In a room, surrounded by 8 filled and 4 unused cryopods not including my own. Out of the 8 that lie in cryosleep, I was one of the only three who seemed pained through the glass. Somewhere not too far in the distance a promethean night let out a shriek.


	28. No Man Left Behind

It had been at least a good two hours of Requiem's surface passing by underneath us before Fallen let the pelican slow at Thorne's request. I looked at my distorted and discolored reflection in the verdant green of my ODST helmet's visor, the visor well accenting the white armor trimmed in the same bright green. I was almost disappointed in what I saw. The same person who'd let, not just most of her own squad, but most of another one as well, be captured or worse. And the same hopeless soldier who was eventually going to tear herself apart with worry, and dread, and doubt, and fear. These were the times that I wished I was more akin to a SPARTAN-II. The legendary warriors of the UNSC. The ones who didn't have to think, or talk, or feel. As far as any of us knew, they felt just as much as any machine aboard the infinity.

I spun my helmet in my hands, lifted it above my head and slipped it on, watching the Heads Up Display come to life right before my eyes. Sarah popped into existence, same trademark smile plastered on her face. I couldn't help but smile back.

"We'll find them, you know that, right?" she asked, her eyes searching my own.

I had so many thoughts rush through the outermost edges of my mind at the same time, did I know that? Was I sure? Was I even fit to lead anymore? Why did they all trust me? How did they make A.I.s eyes so realistic? Though none of these thoughts were actually voiced. All that shot forth from my mouth was a struggled, "Yeah." though even I could tell it was not a very believable response. She wasn't satisfied with the answer but took it anyway, blinking out of my HUD and into her own little world.

"Beacon is 100 KM ahead and… 200 KM down?" said Thorne, the words seeming foreign on his tongue.

We all looked at him in a small fit of disbelief. Though no one questioned his statement. Jasmine brought the Pelican to rest near the location of the beacon. The ship landing with a small jostling. We each stood, rations on hand, and exited the craft. The surroundings were now entirely different from what we had campaigned through this entire time. Instead of barren deserts we were surrounded by lush green jungles. A rotting log lay fallen across the ground in front of the drop doors, moss and decomposition just now starting to grab hold of the dead trees bark. The ground was slick with moisture and plant life, though our all terrain boots seemed to have no problem traversing the mossy rocks and mulched ground of Requiem's jungles.

"We got about a 1 KM hike but with all this foliage it'll probably more like a 3 KM trek." said DeMarco with an irritated sigh.

I didn't blame him, of course. He got angry about everything and I was numbed. I numbed myself to the voices in my head telling me they were dead, that it wasn't worth it, that it was the wrong choice. I numbed them all into the deepest recesses of my mind, but what went with them were my emotions, my cognitive thinking, my ability to feel. I wondered if this is what it felt like to be a II. If so, I would have probably gone insane. The emptiness in my heart and in my senses left me feeling almost sick, but eventually I numbed that away too. I was left with the deafening silence of my helmet, even the sound of my breathing falling away from my ears after long enough of hearing the pattern of inhales and exhales.

Footfall after footfall we trekked through the heavy foliage that came with the territory on this side of Requiem. The sounds of the jungle were enough to put you on alert as me and my team would all turn to the sounds of birds and any rustling in the bushes. There were too many things that could go wrong for anyone to let their guard down now. DeMarco, directly ahead of Fallen, followed by Thorne and finally backed by myself, suddenly held up his fist. We each stopped in our tracks as DeMarco signaled the halt. He peeked out as if looking over the edge of something.

"We got about a 50 Meter drop ahead. We got some vines that we might be able to use but we aren't going down but one at a time." stated DeMarco, turning to face us.

I sighed and nodded to him. He nodded back and holstered his rifle, laying flat on his stomach and tugging at one of the vines plastered to the solid rock of the ravine, one particularly sturdy vine yanking free. DeMarco didn't waste a second before grabbing holt of the vine and swinging over the side. I heard metal slap against rock for a solid minute before Fallen grasped the rope in her right hand, wrapping it around her forearm, and slipping off the side. Again, another minute of waiting. It seemed the bushes were becoming more and more active as time passed, the rustling becoming frequent and much closer. I turned my head over my shoulder in time to see Thorne's head disappear over the ledge. I backed up to the edge, holstering my own rifle and turning around to watch Thorne's climb down.

He slowly made his way down, a foot on the rock at all times. He touched down at the bottom and stood off to the side with the others, craning his neck to look up at me. I took the thick, cord like vine in my hand and turned around to face the jungle. I straddled the vine and let myself swing over the edge, my feet planting firmly into the crumbling and cracked rock wall, threaded with roots and interwoven with smaller vines. I took a footstep down, letting the vine slip through my hands the same amount. Footstep after footstep and I'd gone 50 ft. Not near far enough to just jump and get it over with. I inhaled and tried to shake the sweat from my brow, looking upwards at the interwoven canopies of the trees and the lace like patterns of the sky shining through the branches. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and went to take another step down.

"Contact!" screamed Thorne, three guns snapping free from their holsters some odd 150 ft. below me.

I snapped my eyes open and looked dead into the face of a Promethean Knight, looking over the edge of the ravine. I kept a firm grip on the vine with my left arm and reached for my magnum with the other. As my hand brushed the metal of the handle the Promethean raised its sword and screeched.

I watched in terror, as I drew my magnum, the blade cut through the vine as if there were nothing there, the slack coming quickly towards my hand. My magnum came up to aim at the same moment I began to fall backwards. I had nothing to react to, nothing to hold onto to stop my fall. So I did what I was supposed to and I aimed and fired. My magnum rounds joined that of the three other rifles firing behind me, driving off the knight, an orange ball imploding on itself as it teleported away.

I fired until the slide on my magnum stopped falling forward on its own. As soon as my slide locked, I felt the ground rush up and meet my back with the force of a warthog at full speed. I felt my back bounce off of the dirt as my head collided, whiplashing my neck back upwards and letting it bounce back to the ground. My vision blurred and my head was clouded, the ringing in my ears near unbearable. I saw three familiar looking smudges surround the outer edges of my vision before they came back into focus, my helmet slipping off of my head somewhere in the time between.

I sat up slowly and rubbed my head. It felt swollen, like my brain was too large for the skull that held it and it was pushing to escape out of my ears. I squinted my eyes shut and shook my head clear before I actually began to consciously hear the questions.

"You alright?"

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Hey, can you stand?"

all these questions, they made my head hurt more. I brushed them away before pushing myself up, the ringing in my ears still there, but bearable.

I cursed to myself and scooped up my helmet, "Concussion." I stated nonchalantly.

They all gave me a slight symbol of remorse, a wince or two, but it wasn't a bad injury at all in my field, so I slipped my magnum, recovering it from where it lay, into my holster after a few tries. I proceeded to snap my helmet back into place and roll my neck around, each of them giving me a questioning tilt of the head before I motioned the all good with a thumbs up. They each turned, Jasmine waiting for me to catch up to her before continuing on.

"There have to be more of those things out here." She said lowly.

"Yeah, just about no such thing as a stray knight." I responded.

She gave a firm nod and seemed to lose herself in her thoughts. I didn't blame her for that either. DeMarco had his anger, I had my numbness, and Jasmine had her own world within her mind. Thorne didn't seem to have a quirk for this, he always seemed to be upbeat and supportive of everyone. He was different. If there were anyone I had to compare to Admiral Lasky it would be him.

Once we were moving again I was able to slow down and look at what was happening around me. On my left was a small stream, though how deep it was, was up to the mind's judgement. The water reflected and contoured the bottom as if in some places there was almost no water and in others, a bottomless pit. I looked up from my reflection in the smooth water's surface to look up at the two sides of the ravine, most likely carved by that stream. There was too much detail in these small formations of rock to be natural, though it beautifully was. Thorne looked up from the device he held every so often to look around, DeMarco making sure we were going the right way frequently. I let the gravel of the river bank crunching underneath my boot lull me into a trance. I was sucked into my thoughts.

Right now, that was a terrible place to be. The screams of Jordan, Nikolas, Shikoba, Lilith, Silas, Kathyrn. They all haunted me now. I highly doubted DeMarco couldn't say the same for his own. I hated to relive moments like this. I constantly relived that fateful day on my home planet. I relived the elite walking towards me with the glowing blue plasma blade extended in his hand. I also remember the man that saved me. But now I remember the screams of ones I would have died for. Ones that I could hardly stand to live without. I now remembered one in particular, either in her entirety or in a single, fleeting moment, these were the best memories to relive so far. I looked up from my feet to find that the group had pushed a few feet ahead of me, my footsteps falling slower as I drowned in my thoughts. I was surprised I hadn't drowned long ago.

I took a few wide steps to catch up and continued in the rhythm of our footsteps. Though eventually they had to stop. In our case they stopped at the opening to a large overhang. At the back of the rocky and overgrown outcropping was a door that could have fit a pelican lengthwise and then some, definitely of forerunner origin. Thorne looked down at the device and back up again.

"Well, we're in the right place." he stated with a scratch of his head.

"Well it would make sense, forerunners, prometheans. The two come hand in hand." responded Jasmine.

I sighed and shifted from foot to foot, looking at the door, "Sarah, can you get it open?"

Sarah came through my helmet's microphone, "Well if you can find a panel then I can definitely try."

I bit my lower lip and looked around while the others talked. I searched up and down, all around, scanning with my eyes.

"I got one" said Sarah, "bottom right of the door, should be an access port."

I sighed in relief and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going?" asked DeMarco.

"Just give me a minute ok?" I responded curtly.

I felt the gravel underneath my feet become solid stone, covered in moisture, the moss hanging from the ceiling mixed with the hanging roots of trees atop the overhang. A steady drip of water was rebounding off of the walls as I approached the door. And then I saw it, it wasn't in perfect shape but it should work. I sped up a bit and slipped the chip out of my helmet, sliding it into the port as soon as I got there, Sarah flickering into view.

Her voice was broken up but I could understand her wavering and cut model, "This ter-terminal I old. B-but I can u-use it."

And at that she got to work. Her hologram would occasionally have a glitch in its animation, her body breaking apart for a few moments before pulling itself back together. I was surprised when only a minute later she turned to me with a devious smile.

"Got it." she said, just as I was able to yank her chip from the slot. I was happy, I wouldn't even lie about it.

I stuck her chip to my faceplate as if to kiss it before slamming it into its port on the back of my helmet, the familiar cold rush running over me as she reappeared.

"Thank God for you Sarah." I said with a breathy chuckle.

She simply smiled and said, "It's what I do." before winking and disappearing from my HUD.

I turned around excitedly as the door made a large groaning behind me. The walls and roof began to shake, small rocks and clods of dirt shaking loose as the door was lowered into the ground. There was a terrible sound of metal grinding against rock as the door was scraped by the sharp and jagged rocks of Requiem before it broke off their points and sanded them down as smooth as the door itself. I was joined by three others, all looking at the gaping hole in the once covered wall, the interior the same shining grey, illuminated by unknown sources.

We had each been in places similar on good terms, but this time we were here for a much better reason, though not as pleasant. Two of the three SPARTANs flanking me held their guns on their shoulders, the other holding it low to his stomach. I reached over my shoulder and grabbed my own Battle Rifle, wrapping a finger over the charging handle with my left hand and yanking backwards, a satisfying clink coming from the gun's interior as the fresh mag loaded in its first bullet.

"Ladies first." said Thorne with a chuckle.

I smiled to myself before walking forward and hearing another transition of flooring, this time back onto synthetic material. My feet ached to be removed from their containment and feel the chilled metal against their soles but of course I could not oblige. I simply walked in, metal clanking against metal in a row of four.

"These places have always made me uncomfortable…" muttered DeMarco.

I didn't disagree with him, but he knew as well as all of us that we had a job to do, he knew better than some. I shivered as the suit's temperature adjustment system took a moment to kick in, the interior of this labyrinth frozen compared to the tropical jungles it was housed in. The deeper we stalked down the winding ramps the more our footsteps echoed, down through the construct and back to us moments later. Sounds from below us became clearer as the click-clack of crawlers feet, scuttering across the walls, became more evident. There were the voices of Knights, if they could be called that, the gritty mechanical scraping to their cries would put anyone on alert, and being SPARTANs, we were always on alert.

The gradient of the ramps downward began to lower, becoming flatter and flatter as we continued until we were met with a lat hallway, two paths branching left and right at the end.

"Split up?" asked Thorne.

And as much as I wanted to say no, there was to much unknown ground to cover, "Yeah, We'll go right." I said, gesturing to Fallen.

She walked over to stand beside me, the four of us looking at each other in a quiet goodbye as both our small squads walked forward and branched away from one another. I shifted my gun uncomfortably in my hands, one of the few times the weight was more uneasing than comforting. I looked to my right and saw the small SPARTAN that I was traveling with and smiled a bit to myself. My eyes fixed forward again, a small orange glow was coming from around the corner ahead. With nothing but completely smooth walls surrounding us we each looked at each other for any ideas of what to do. Unfortunately neither of us had one.

That wasn't entirely true, we both knew exactly what we were going to have to do. We each leveled our guns at the end of the hall and began walking, sights not moving from the end of the hall. The orange light was becoming brighter and brighter by the second. Fallen racked the charging handle on her DMR a soft click coming from the inside. And then, rounding the corner, came the Promethean Knight.

"Contact." said Fallen, more a formality than an alert.

We both opened fire, the shield breaking and the knight showing its human skull to us before we each shot that too. The promethean broke away in small flakes of orange, leaving a small ball of what was found to have been data being left behind. We each moved on, slipping another clip into the port after ejecting that mag, smacking it in there good and tight. We each racked the charging handle, knowing that more would be coming soon.

"Let's go, double time!" I said before breaking into a run around the corner, Fallen hot on my heels.

When we rounded the corner there was another short ramp downwards before branching again to the right, there we saw DeMarco and Thorne coming down a ramp on the opposite side.

"Well that was extremely necessary wasn't it?" asked Thorne sarcastically.

I scoffed and chuckled a bit before they each racked their slides and jogged after us.

"We heard the shots, thought you'd be here soon enough." said DeMarco with a smug tone to his voice.

Down the ramp that came together in the middle and then down another corridor we went before coming to the first door we'd found in this place.

"I can't get a good signal through all this interference but I'm sure this has got to be the place." said Thorne, tapping the tacpad on his arm.

I let out a huff of air before taking out Sarah and slipping her into the access port once more.

She appeared on the pedestal, already furiously typing, "You could at least give a girl a warning first." she said playfully, "I'll need a minute, this door is heavily encrypted. I can't get access to anything beyond it, and I can hardly access the door." she said with an aggravated lilt.

A screech from the opposite end of the corridor let us know we had some company.

"Uh, Sarah, you might wanna hurry up." I said

"I'm working on it!"

And into the hallway teleported a mass of knights, crawlers, skittering around the corner and up the walls, and Guardians, floating in afterwards. And then the hallway erupted. it erupted with sounds, lights, projectiles, and shrapnel. My gun spit fire from my own hands, the bite of my bullets felling prometheans of all the likes. A grenade slipped from my side, one hand still firing as I tossed the fragmentation grenade forward. A group of three knights all recoiled as their shields failed, becoming targets. Bolts of orange plasma whizzed by and some pinged off my armor's shields. DeMarco stumbled back, holding his left thigh before raising his gun again. I saw his shields flickering back online, and a brand new hole burned in his armor. I turned my attention back to the horde of prometheans before I heard the three words I'd been waiting for.

"I got it!" exclaimed Sarah.

I wasted no time yanking her and sliding underneath the still opening door. I ushered in the others DeMarco sliding in backwards, Fallen diving through and Thorne crouching under the gap, still firing.

"Close it!" i screamed.

"On it!" screamed Sarah, the door shuttering to a stop before lowering again, sealing shut to the sound of a promethean's cry.

I put my hands on either thigh and huffed out a breath of air before looking up at each of them, a drop of sweat dripping onto the inside of my helmet.

"Intense." said Throne, a sly grin you just knew was there on his face.

DeMarco groaned, either from pain or from annoyance I didn't know. He slipped his can of biofoam out and squeezed it off in the wound. He gritted his teeth before standing.

"I'm good, let's keep moving."

I nodded at him and looked at everyone else, they seemed relatively fine. I looked around now noticing how dark it really was in here. It was illuminated with a dim, bluish light. I was unnerved, but not undetermined. We pushed on, a small room a little ways off. When we stepped in we were relieved, frightened, angered, and just about any other emotion you could possibly think of. There, in some form of a cryopod, lay our teams, four of the pods on the left emptied. I became almost sick before swallowing the bile that had crept into my throat. I walked over to the nearest control panel while the others went over and brushed their fingertips against the glass of the pods, the helmets of each SPARTAN removed.

I slammed my fist downwards on one of the larger buttons that seemed like a good idea to press. A hiss of air escaped the pod and frozen air leaked from the sides and bottoms as the top lifted. Each occupant fell out of their corresponding pods, taking gulps of air and coughing up the frigid air. Madsen puked on the floor, but no one minded right now. We each ran to our teammates, helping them up and looking them over. Silas was stumbling on his feet, looking at each and every one of us, no matter if we wanted it or not. He patched up DeMarco's wound a bit better, gave Madsen some pills, took some himself and sat down I patted him on the shoulder and walked into a room adjacent. I grabbed an armful of helmets and took them back into the room, laying them out and doing this until everyone was equipped. I kept trafficking helmets, and then moved to weapons. By the time everyone was armored and weaponized, they were mostly good. I had questions, sure, but this was not the time or place.

Lilith seemed a bit more shaken up than the others, slowly moving, rarely blinking. I'd have her with Silas before long. Right now we needed to get out of here. I walked over to the door and had Sarah open it, the prometheans gone and the halls strangely silent. I kept my gun trained on the hallway as everyone filed out, I following closely behind, the door shuttering closed again. I walked with my back to the group, watching our backs. We all had to make the journey back up these godforsaken ramps. They seemed never ending.

"We're almost there guys, keep it together." said Fallen, in response to Phoenix having to stop to catch his breath for a moment.

I was worried out of my mind for them, I couldn't fail them now, I just couldn't. There were so many things to say, to d-

Hold that thought. A gun burst whirled me to face the front, a large group of prometheans appearing. We all fired, but they kept teleporting at random intervals. Turns out they were smarter than we'd anticipated. While we were focused on the jumping knights, I was thrown to the ground from behind, a crawler scratching and ripping at my back. The crawler was soon gone, Grant's boot crunching the metal. I took her hand and stood, recovering my weapon and continuing fire. I took a scattershot to the shoulder, shields flickering madly, alarms crying out in rebuttal.

"We're moving! Go for the door!" yelled out Thorne.

"We're coming! Go!" I screamed back.

I ushered each of my squad mates ahead of me, still taking popshots at the prometheans. The hall was becoming thick with crawlers, guardians providing undesired protection for them. I watched a guardian swoop in to revive a knight before I could get hold of it. I leaped at it, grabbing at its midsection and ripping out its hardlight shield. I threw the scrap heap to the ground and ran off with the shield.

When I rounded the corner Everyone was waiting at the door, Felicia already working on the door's functions. Dragon was up front, ready to yank the chip at a moment's notice. I turned to watch the crawlers round the corner as well.

"Grenades, now!" I yelled.

Seemed I didn't have to tell them, pins already out and grenades mid air. Shrapnel and crawler bits flew everywhere. A great firework show for our exit. I whooped a bit and turned to watch the door lower a bit more, Dragon, flamethrower in hand, waiting for any opposition. When the door lowered nothing stood in our way. I jogged my way to the front just in time to be reminded that we weren't home free yet.

Dragon raised the barrel of his firespitter and went to torch a newly teleported knight before the gun could be slung from his arms by the promethean's superior strength. Everyone was raising the barrels of their guns as Dragon opened his arms in a fighting stance. Worst mistake he will have ever made. The promethean bore down on him with its sword, the mysterious orange blade slicing directly through Dragon's left stood in shock for a moment before falling backwards, his arm being lopped to the floor. I was the first to move on the knight as it raised for the killing blow. I raised the hardlight shield above him and let the sword rebound before everyone opened fire. The knight was down in seconds. Silas was too. He slid on his knees up to Dragon who was suddenly surrounded by everyone else. He was looking to his right, breathing heavily.

"How bad am I cut?" he asked, refusing to look.

"How bad did the bastard cut me!" he yelled, his voice desperate and his breathing rapid.

Meteor was already bandaging and applying, and doing things above my own knowledge. He didn't seem to feel anything, He grabbed me by my arm and pulled me down to his face.

"I can not feel my arm." he said matter-of-factly.

I cleared my throat and spoke, "It's pretty bad, but, uh, you're gonna be okay, alright? Just don't look, look at me alright?" I said

He seemed disturbed by this answer but nodded anyways, looking only at me as Meteor and I helped the brute to his feet, Crow coming in from behind and wrapping his arm around Dragon's waist, putting what was left of his arm over his shoulder. I was on the other side, Dragon's eyes still on me. Meteor was mumbling about shock, and blood loss, and treatments of all kinds in his rapid english. I feared for what would happen when he came out of shock.

We helped him hobble to the ravine's wall, the loss of blood making him weaker and weaker.

"How in the hell are we gonna get him up there?" asked Phoenix, looking around for… who knows?

"Hell if I know." responded Hoya.

Fallen spoke up, "I can go get the pelican and try to get it to you guys, though I don't know if it'll be the smoothest getaway."

"Well that's the option we have right now. Go." I said.

She nodded and immediately began scaling the wall.

"I'm going with her." "Me too." came to voices.

Phoenix went up, then Thorne. I sat against the wall and waited. It may be a hell of a time getting them all out of here, but leaving anyone, no matter the status, was unacceptable.

No man left behind.


	29. Bits and Pieces Make us Whole

I was awake, alert, ready for anything. Dragon asleep by my side, the blood loss fatiguing him greatly, though Meteor was thankfully able to stop most of the bleeding. I was awake, yes, and then I woke up. I woke up to the sound of a struggled gasp and a scream of pain to my right.

I bolted to my feet and turned, Dragon awake and probably wishing he wasn't. Shock had apparently worn off, and he was feeling the full effect of the pain. He was gritting his teeth and trying not to scream yell out in pain, but then he looked down to see his arm, or the lack of, then he didn't hold anything back. It took me a moment to scramble over to him, Meteor of course running up beside me. I grabbed his head and forced him to look at me, his eyes were frantic and he'd broken out into a sweat.

"Step back, let me see him." said Meteor.

I rose to a knee and slid back a step, Meteor immediately taking my place. Nik hadn't stopped screaming yet, which was understandable. We were soon surrounded by the rest of the group, each of which was looked up and down by furiously bolting eyes before they snapped to another member of his audience. I wished then that I could do something, anything to comfort him, but I didn't really know how to help with something like this. I watched Silas looking over his handiwork and making sure that nothing had come undone. There wasn't much in a field kit that would help with shock, but we did have vodka for cleansing. Meteor reached into the kit and pulled out the small liquor bottle, handing him the tiny plastic container of "medicinal alcohol". Nik, being Nik, immediately downed his favorite drink and threw the bottle down on the ground.

"Where has my arm gone." he said in a surprisingly calm voice for the look on his face and the cold sweat dripping down his neck.

Meteor didn't respond, which seemed to disturb him even more, he looked down at the bandaged shoulder in which used to be his arm. His eyes teared up and he knocked his head back against the stone wall behind him.

"Fuck." was his simple, one worded comment.

I rubbed the back of my neck, turning around and opening a comm line with Phoenix.

"Jordan, where are you?" I asked

"We're inbound, ETA 1 mike." he said.

I sighed and looked back to the team, "One minute till exfil." they all nodded.

Hoya stood from his kneeling position with his shotgun, Madsen joining him with his assault rifle, having lost his sniper when he was yanked here. They both walked over to me.

"Thank you, and your girlfriend for coming to get us." he said.

"No problem at a-" I stopped, blushing and looking at him dumbfounded, "hold on, we aren't, like-"

He chuckled a hearty, deep throated chuckle almost like Nikolas's, "Don't worry sir, everyone can already see it, maybe everyone but you."

I was blushing madly at this point and stuttering to find an answer, Madsen and Hoya looking at each other and giving a synchronized laugh.

"You're only proving our point." said Madsen while I was stuttering.

I slapped my hand against my face and attempted to hide the redness in my cheeks with my gloved hand.

"We'll leave you be Chief." said Madsen with a leaving chuckle before walking away with Hoya.

I rubbed my hand into my temple and ground the interwoven fibers so hard against my skull I thought I may be tenderizing my brain. Despite our relationship being forbidden during our service, it was taboo, secret, hell it was _embarrassing_. But I didn't want to think of it that way. And now not only do i have to deal with a wounded soldier, I have to deal with my own damn emotions. My emotions didn't matter! I could not let my own emotions get in the way of leading this team. I have a duty to uphold! I slapped my helmet over my head and felt it latch itself on. I sighed and blushed in private.

"Sam? You alright? I'm detecting a large release of Adrenaline and Testosterone from your adrenal glands, what's up?" came Sarah's cooing voice.

I streaked my hand over my faceplate and sighed, "Just some stuff that no one else needs to have to deal with." I said.

"Sam, you know that's not true. Anyone's problems are everyone's problems on this team." she responded.

"No, they're my own emotions, not anyone else's burden."

"Sam."

I opened my mouth to respond but promptly shut it. I mulled in my thoughts for a moment. What was I doing when I went into Jasmine's quarters that night? Surely, I wasn't supposed to interfere, but she'd obviously been appreciative of such a gesture. I wasn't supposed to say such kind things to her, but she obviously appreciated the gesture. I wasn't supposed to kiss her, but she obviously appreciated the gesture. Emotions were not something that I dealt with on a normal basis anymore, I tried to bottle them up as best I could, but of course I did let a bit spill out when I unscrewed the cap in that tent with Jasmine. and it felt good to cry, even for a little while, it _felt_ good to _feel_. I chuckled to myself.

"Sam?"

"I'm good."

"Sure?"

"Positive."

"Well… alright then." and like that, she was gone.

When I looked up the pelican was hovering above the ravine, slowly descending into the exposed rock ravine. It touched down not seconds later, the back slowly descending onto the ground. Grant and Silas had grabbed hold of Dragon and were helping him to the pelican. As they were walking in, Phoenix peeked out the back and looked at Meteor.

"When you're done with that, we need you up front."

Meteor sighed and helped Dragon to a seat then rushed up to the cockpit. He looked at the pilot's seat. I thought for another moment.

 _Hold on, the pilot's seat?_

I jogged to the dropship and up to the cockpit, where there appeared to be an argument going on.

"-m fine, I swear. Go take care of Dragon." came a familiar female voice.

I looked down to my right and saw Jasmine's chestplate and helmet, lying on the ground. Meteor refused and proceeded to produce some gauze and a piece of absorbent cloth.

"A dab of biofoam and… there." he said, satisfied.

As soon as he moved out of the way and turned to see me, he scuttled back to the bay. I walked up the steps to the small cockpit and removed my helmet, meeting Jasmine's eyes when she turned, probably to make sure I wasn't coming.

"Aw shit…"

"And what in the hell do you think you're doing going off like that while you're injured?" I seethed at her.

I gave her the up and down, her forearm and bicep guards tossed haphazardly into the co-pilot's seat, her arms and chest stripped down to jumpsuit, her ridiculously long hair splayed across her back. She had a few bandages over her chest and a small bit of blood soaked through the cloth that Meteor had put in place.

"I'm-"

"Why didn't you say anything? We could have found someone else to drive the pelican!"

"Who you?!" she was getting defensive, but I didn't much care.

"Sure, I'd fly the thing, but next time you don't notify me of an injury I'll have you suspended!"

"Go ahead, try and suspend a SPARTAN unit! Try it I dare you!"

"I can't believe you would risk getting yourself hurt like that!"

"I do it every single day, I'm in the military for Christ's sake!"

I hitched for a moment. I really didn't have anything to come back at that with. I stood there looking at her with a furious look on my face and huffing so hard my breath hit the windshield. The teams behind me, looking on in anticipation, fear, what? I didn't know, I didn't care. I grabbed her by the jumpsuit fabric and yanked her from the chair, pulling her up to stand. I wrapped my arms around her neck and squeezed, pulling her in tight.

"I am so pissed at you right now." I said with a bit let poison on my tone.

"I know." was all she said with a slight chuckle.

I huffed again and released her, watching her effortlessly return to the pilot's seat. Maybe she wasn't as hurt as I thought, maybe I should listen to her more often.

I turned to face the bay, all eyes on me.

"What are you all looking at? Get ready to go!"

People began shuffling to seats and strapping in, and those left were sitting or leaning against walls by the time I'd reached the bay. I leaned against the wall as well and reached into the rations crate, pulling out an apple wrapped in plastic and sealed tight. I tossed my helmet to the ground and ripped the airtight seal off, taking a chomp out of the synthetic fruit.

"All clear for takeoff Jasmine."

"Roger."

The engines of the Pelican hummed to life and the ship began its ascension.


	30. We Need to Talk

Our way back to Infinity was neither filled with chatter, nor eerily silent. It seemed almost normal, well as normal as a cabin filled with a newly disabled man and a handful of the deadliest weapons in the galaxy. That's all we were anyways, just weapons. Right? I felt my head weakly begin throbbing again from my fall. I placed a hand to my temple, annoyed. It sucked to have a concussion, I'd had my fair share, but there were much worse things that could happen. I could've lost an arm.

"Infinity, this is Fireteam Crimson reporting alongside Fireteam Majestic, requesting permission to dock. Please respond." said Fallen into her helmet, her chestplate still removed, but her helmet attached atop her head.

It was an amusing sight, the tiny girl in only her helmet and leg armor, making her chest look disproportionately small. I played with her gauntlets that I had put in my lap when I sat in the co-pilot's seat. We awaited the response from Infinity's bridge with open ears and hope in our hearts, but Commander Palmer was not known for her kindness and forgiveness.

 _Back on Infinity_

Commander Palmer stared blankly at the helmet cams of the SPARTANs, the warship hanging precariously in space in front of them. She had to admit, she was impressed with their efforts, and even more impressed with their relative success. She sighed and walked out onto the bridge, approaching Lasky from his left.

"Sir, they're requesting permission to board, your response sir?" came the voice of one of the many people seated at the various terminals on the bridge.

Thomas looked up from the holodesk and turned his head to Sarah, a weathered look on his face.

"Your call Commander." he said, a tired sound to his voice.

Sarah didn't hesitate, turning to the man to tell him to deny them entrance, but she stopped. She thought of what they'd done, what hell they'd gone through to get their team back. She thought of what she would have done,and how angry she would have been had she known no search party would be made for her team. She had her mouth open, but instead let out a sigh, rubbing the back of her head.

"Let them in." was her muttered response, before she turned to Lasky, nodded, and left the bridge.

"You heard her, let them in."

 _Back with Crimson_

"Fireteam Crimson this is Infinity, permission granted, welcome back." the radio spat out through the cabin.

At first we were all silent but at the first cheer everyone joined, there were high fives and hugs going all around at this successful mission, even Dragon seemed happy. I turned in my chair and looked at Jasmine, who'd removed her helmet and was smiling back at me.

"You did it." she said.

"No, _we_ did it Jas." I responded, both of us smiling even bigger at each other.

Jasmine gave a hummed laugh and placed her hands on the steering wheel and replaced her helmet.

"Copy that, returning to hangar 6" she said, jetting the pelican through the space between our two ships.

And in what seemed like seconds we were landing in the all familiar bay 6, the hatch on the back opening up to the ship's interior. I heard no shouts o rejoice, or happiness, only the scuttling of two pairs of feet to the infirmary. I got up and walked into the back cabin, Jasmine on my heels, reattaching armor pieces as she went. And by the time my visor was penetrated by the daggers shooting out of Commander Palmer's eyes, she was dressed. I looked around at all of Majestic and most of Crimson, save Meteor and Dragon, standing at full attention as Palmer began to pace the edge of the ramp.

"Now I can understand you wanting to go after your fireteams, and I can understand your aggravation with the UNSC not wanting to help. But what I can not understand, is why you hijacked a pelican, knocked out two marines and stole a crate of rations. Would anyone like to explain?" she said, her eyes daring one of us to step forward.

I accepted her dare and lightly brushed past the two teams, coming to the front of the pack and receiving a few odd looks, one from Palmer herself. When she asked for an explanation I don't think she was an expecting an answer.

"Permission to speak freely sir."

"Granted."

"Sir, they were following my orders sir. And as a Master Chief Petty Officer they were obliged to follow sir. I accept full responsibility for their actions sir." I rambled out, trying to remain strong, but I was almost positive my knees were clacking together.

She smiled at my response and walked up to me, she, towering over me an entire three inches. She looked down on me before speaking, "I admire your bravery soldier, but both fireteams will be punished as wholes." she said before walking back down the ramp and addressing everyone again, "You will all compete in The War Games, now some of you may think this sounds fun, but this is no normal War Games, it's _The_ War Games. This is a tournament between five fireteams, a three day long competition where you may never leave the simulator. Should you die, you are yanked from the simulator and put through one of our new obstacle courses" that didn't sound too bad, "until the War Games are complete." she finished, making the deal a whole lot more uncomfortable to think about.

I heard several simultaneous groans from the two teams behind me, causing Palmer to speak up again, "Be glad this is all I'm doing, I could have you Court-Martialed."

That was true, I didn't make any noise until she waved her hand and spoke a final time, "Dismissed." we all shuffled down the ramp, most of us to the infirmary. Even DeMarco followed us in.

I rounded the corner first and saw Dragon sitting up on a bed, barely holding up his weight even with most of his armor removed. A doctor was looking over his arm, and sewing him up. Dragon remained straight faced and looked straight ahead. Not wanting to look down at the absence of his arm. The doctor took a few measurements, patted him on the shoulder and walked off. I was surprised that Meteor wasn't around to be with Dragon, but then again I hadn't seen Athena come in either. I walked up to Dragon and gave him a reassuring smile as I removed my helmet. He smiled back weakly.

"Thank you comrades, for retrieving...well, most of me." he gave a hearty laugh.

We all lightened up a bit with his laugh, Crow stepping forth, usually silent, but actually very well spoken, "I will pray for you whilst I meditate." he said in his fatherly bass, smiling and patting Dragon's shoulder.

"Sorry to ask, but have you seen Silas and Kat?" I asked.

He nodded and went to point with the arm that no longer existed, "Bah." he said in frustration, turning and pointing with the other arm.

"Thanks." I said, walking off to where he'd said they'd gone.

I walked out of the infirmary and looked down the hall, there was really only one place to go from here. I walked the hall, only a few rooms branching off from it, one of them was a janitor's closet, the door was slightly open strangely enough.

"What are you doing out here?" came Jasmine's voice from behind me, startling me out of my wits.

I jumped and turned to face her looking at her through slitted eyes.

"I don't know, but I think that Silas and Kat may have just hopped into the janitor's closet."

"Well why would they be in there?"

"Jasmine, why else would they be in there."

She seemed to think for a moment before her cheeks flushed bright red, "You don't think they're…"

"One way to find out." I said with a smile.

She shoved me out of the way and peeked through the crack in the door, I could almost see her cheeks change shades in that very instant. She moved back from the door a hand over her mouth, she looked at me and all I gave was a smile. I moved to look as well, peeking through the crack in the door.

They were there alright, and they surely did not want to be disturbed. I think it may have been the sloppiest, most heated make out session I'd ever watched. Though it's not exactly like I'd seen many. Kat was straddling Silas and Silas had wrapped his hands around her waist, pulling her in tight. It was definitely sloppy the way they kissed. I internally chuckled before I felt something rub against my thigh.

Jasmine had crouched down and was looking through the bottom portion of the door, her cheeks still reddened. I felt really, _really_ wrong for watching them but it was like watching one of the cheesiest romance movies of all times. One you sat down and made fun of instead of really watched. Only this time it was real, and they were really doing this. And I could _hear_ their lips smacking together. I almost lost it. I looked down at Jasmine and whispered.

"I knew it."

"How would you have known!" she whispered back.

"You're just blind."

"I am not!" as she turned to try and make a point she knocked into my legs, propelling me forward.

I slammed into the door and fell in, Jasmine, entwined in my legs, fell in with me. I looked down at her and sighed, looking back up at the two who were now looking down at us in confusion, and fear. I stood, dusted myself off and apologized.

"Sorry for interrupting, continue." I said with a smirk.

"Were you spying on us?" asked Kat defensively.

"We weren't spying, we were just watching you without you knowing." said Jasmine.

"So you were spying." piped back Silas.

"By definition, yes." I simply stated, grabbing Jasmine by the back of her armor and dragging her out of the room, her arms crossed and a pout on her face, it was times like these that reminded me that we were all just human.

I smiled and let her stand, walking back to the armory with her hot on my heels, seemingly thinking over something. So much so that when I stopped at our armor racks she ran into my back. I shook my head and scoffed playfully receiving a punch to the arm as I stepped up to the armor rack and waiting for the machine to take action. I felt the armor fall off of me and onto the floor, a huge weight lifted. I could see Jasmine's Infiltrator chestplate clank to the floor across from me, the forest green dulled in this light but the Crimson accents strangely highlighted at the same time. We both stepped down in nothing but our jumpsuits, now headed back to the cabins.

I wasn't unnerved by Jasmine's silence, she wasn't one for a whole lot of talking. As we left the armory she place the white leather eyepatch over her black eye, sliding her hair out from under the strap. I looked back at her and smiled, receiving just an upturn of the corners of her lips, good enough for me. I turned back and went to open the door to my cabin. As soon as I was able to open the door I was shoved in with an oof, Jasmine coming in behind me and shutting the door.

I caught myself on the bed, turning and sitting on the bed, "What's up?" I asked, a bit nervously.

"We need to talk." I'd always heard from movies and such, all the kids at school, it was never a good thing to hear that in a relationship, but was this a relationship, was it really? Maybe that's not even what she wants to talk about, I reasoned.

"Alright, talk to me." I said.

"I wanna talk about… well, us." dammit.

"Ok…" I said as she walked over to the bed, sitting next to me.

"I don't…"she struggled to find words, "I don't know how all of this stuff works." she said, gesturing at the space between us.

"I promised never to love anyone after my parents died, and then I found you… and I don't know how to feel." she said, a confused look on her face, "I guess what I'm trying to say is… I think I forgot how to feel."

She looked up at me and all I could produce was a smile, "Thank God" I said, looking up at the ceiling with a chuckle, "I thought I was the only one on this godforsaken ship that felt this way."

Jasmine looked up at me with a shimmer in her eyes, her lips slightly parted, like a child in awe. I chuckled at her face and assumed she wanted to hear more, so I did what any reasonable human would do, and spoke.

I drew out the dogtags by which the pendant hung, running a thumb over it, "The day that the covenant attacked, I never knew what happened to my parents, they were just… gone. I got closure about my mom thanks to you but my dad, I know deep down he's dead but I can't let go of the hope that he's alive. I was at school when they attacked so I never saw Dad. I want to believe he's alive, but it hurts to think about, so I shove it all away."

"I thought you may have been making fun of me, but wow, you... you really understand, don't you?"

I nodded and ran my thumb over Mom's dogtag one more time before replacing it and moving my gaze from the ceiling back to Jasmine.

My breath hitched, her face dangerously close to my own, our breaths mingling with one another as she uttered, "I want to know what it's like to feel again."

No one else would have heard her, but from how close she was, I could. The whispered words nearly stopped my heart, but somehow it was still telling my body what to do, because my brain was no longer giving commands as I found my arm moving without my own consent, my fingers hardly brushing against her jaw, her breath becoming shivering and jittery. I swallowed all of my insecurities away, all my fears, concerns, all my thoughts, swallowed back everything but this moment right now. I ran my thumb over her jawline, just as I had the other two most precious things in my life many times before. I felt her gently lean into my hand, leaning centimeters forward at the same time. Unlike our first kiss, I didn't rush her without her knowing, she wanted this just as much as I did, and I could tell from the way she leaned in time with me, our lips barely brushing, our noses touching. I tilted my head just a bit to my right and fell the rest of the way into her, the feeling I'd craved since our first kiss taking over me as if it were the first all over again.

She slowly lifted her own hand to the back of my head, running her fingers up through my brown hair, gripping a handful at the back, pulling me closer. I kept my hand on her jaw, massaging her jawline with my left hand and reaching out for a handful of fabric with my right. I grabbed onto her jumpsuit's chest, clumping the fibers in my hand and pulling her in tighter until we were chest to chest and neck to neck. I savored the taste of her lips on mine and memorized every curve in her body, moving my hand behind her neck and entangling my fingers in her hair. I didn't want to break away, but I was running short of breath, no matter how much I could pull in through my nose.

I reluctantly tilted my head down until our lips fell apart, resting my forehead on her own, each of us greedily taking in gulps of air. I gave a breathy chuckle, placing my hand on the top of her head and placing my lips on her forehead before drawing her head under my chin, her body molding perfectly to mine as I stroked her hair. She blushed, adjusting her head and tucking her face into my shoulder.

"Uhm, am I… interrupting something?" came a familiar voice to both of us, making both of us freeze up.

I turned to look at Jordan, both of his violet eyes staring at us with a bit of surprise.

"No Jordan, go ahead." I said, a bit displeased as I let Jasmine's head go, her body still frozen in place.

"Well uh, it's just, we got debriefing in 15 minutes in the war room."

"Alright, thanks Jordan."

He nodded and walked down the hall towards his cabin. I waited until his footfalls became inaudible before grabbing Jasmine by the shoulders and looking at her with a smile. She looked back up, blushing madly, the red a stark contrast to the white of her scar and her eyepatch.

"I didn't know how embarrassing it was for Kat until it happened to us. How long had he been standing there Sam?" she asked, a bit of a scolding tone to her voice.

I only smiled, "What does it matter how much he saw, y'know I'd say, it was worth it." I said with a wink.

Her cheeks looked as if they burned, her face cross, her lips drawn up in a tight line. I only chuckled at her before standing and taking walking over to my closet.

"Unzip me would you?" I asked.

Such simple tasks were normal before we, well, I guess we had gotten in a relationship now? But for some reason Jasmine hesitated to unzip the jumpsuit. I could almost feel her eyes scorching holes through my back.

"Look, unzip me and I'll unzip you, then we can get dressed, alright?"

She gave a feeble, "Yeah." before unzipping my suit, I turned around and returned the favor, watching her scurry out of the room.

I chuckled to myself and shook my head before peeling off the skintight suit and dressing in my standard shirt and sweatpants. I walked out of the room just after Jasmine, seeing her in yet again her tank top and sweats, a forest green bra showing through the side as she turned to look back at me with a small smile. We walked the halls to the armory side by side, no words spoken between us, but I did manage to snake my hand down to hers and wrap my pinkie around her own, shuffling a bit closer to her than necessary. This put a smile on my face. We walked like this all the way to the armory, where we were the last to arrive, though still on time. I looked around and did not find Dragon for obvious reasons, but I did find Silas and Kat, standing at attention ridiculously close to one another, Silas's hair dishevelled a bit more than Kat's, who had probably revamped her looks in the bathroom mirror.

Jasmine and I walked up in line with the others, Commander Palmer rounding the corner just as we assumed our positions, a less angry look on her face this time.

"At ease" we all changed our stances to parade rest in trained synchronization, "So, Ardent, you start the debrief."

"Well sir, the mission started off a bit like this…"

 _30 Chapters y'all! That's amazing! I've stopped getting reviews lately, and I'm a bit saddened by that because I love to hear you guys feedback on what's going on. If you don't tell me I can't know what you like or dislike more! So anyways, have a good one._


	31. Prosthetics

There was a peculiar, delightful feeling after a debriefing. It gave everyone a voice, gave them all a sense of purpose. It gave everyone a way to get things off their chest. It also gave Palmer an excuse to chew us all to pieces.

"So you endangered your entire team- _both_ of your teams- on the single hunch that A: The Prometheans hadn't killed them, B: That the signs you found were your teams, and C: That your teams were in condition to make the escape?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying Commander." I responded with a lilt of annoyance.

She was of course asking these questions again to try and make me realize how stupid I had been. But no matter what she said, I would not feel guilty for going back for quite frankly, I was still overjoyed at my team being back.

Palmer's eyes bored into my own, and when she finally broke away, I was left with a sense of being read. I decided I didn't like that feeling. Palmer's eyes had moved on, though, and I was spared as she began drilling DeMarco and Thorne. They looked to be faring nearly as well as I was.

I looked over to them and shook my head before taking a breath and setting my face straight, "Commander Palmer, permission to visit Dragon in the infirmary? I am obliged to be with him right now."

Palmer eyed me suspiciously, she could probably see that it was only an excuse to leave, but I really did need to go talk to him. After a moment more she sighed and nodded, gesturing for me to leave. I took the leave, saluting before turning on a heel and striding out of the room. I found myself in the infirmary once more, Dragon now towering over me whilst still in armor. I chuckled when he turned and gave a heart smile chuckling.

"Chief! You have come to see me have you not?" he said.

I smiled and stood by his bed, "That's right. So what's going on?" I asked.

He gestured to his stump, "They are giving me new arm! A strong arm they say."

I wasn't surprised to hear he'd be getting a prosthetic, which, speak of the devil, was just carted in. The slim, female nurse looked at him and I, questioning "Nikolas Hall."

"That is me." he said, eyeing the metal prosthetic almost greedily.

She chuckled and began to unclasp his chestplate, letting it fall to the ground with a resounding thud. She looked over the stub of his arm which had been stitched up quite nicely by the on board doctors. The metal of the arm glinted in the infirmary's lights, the complex web of wiring and mechanics covered by a solid titanium alloy. She seemed satisfied and hummed to herself before taking a cord from the arm and plugging it into a small port on the back of Nik's head, his neural implants. He didn't seem phased or hurt by this so I didn't much concern myself with this, but when the petite woman hefted the arm up to his shoulder and it latched itself on, metal arms grabbing onto his shoulder, he gasped.

A wave of concern washed over me, but when he began flexing his hand and moving his arm about he yelled with joy, "It feels like I have my arm back!" he exclaimed with a smile.

The nurse smiled back and left without only a chuckle. He spent a good three minutes just flexing his hand picking up objects. He began telling me how he could feel as if they were his real fingers, as if his arm was never gone. His fun was interrupted when an engineer walked in and ushered him out to another room, one which I had no access to. It was understandable of course.

I turned and left the infirmary, walking through the enormous ship, taking a couple of minutes just to get to the war games. The team had agreed to a practice tournament during the debrief, and we were going to practice. We wouldn't be able to properly practice until we had our man back so this was just a crash course in essence. We didn't know what to expect from the war games so we left our A.I. in charge of working out the best training course they could.

The walk to the war games was a long one, located near the bottom of Infinity. My legs were more than well equipped for the journey, but it was more taxing on my mind to be left alone with my thoughts. I saw flashbacks of that day and the warthog wreckage, only days ago when I lost my team, what seemed so long ago when I lost my mom, my dad. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, relieved beyond belief when I bumped into Shikoba in the halls. The gentle giant was walking the halls to the games as well, albeit much slower. He seemed lost in thought as well. I could see part of his back behind his grey tank top, the wings of a crow branching off onto wither shoulder in an enormous proportion.

"Hey, Shikoba." I called out.

He turned and saw me, immediately upturning his lips into a smile. I smiled back, eyeing the dreamcatcher around his neck, "Samantha, ho are you?" he asked.

We didn't talk much, but he was very kind, the most we talked was tactics and on the battlefield. He called me Samantha, which I disliked, but I brushed it off for the towering man. He was no 117 but he was pretty damn close.

"I'm alright." I said, though it must not have been convincing, because he looked at me with searching eyes, a small smile still on his weathered, tanned face.

"I believe there is more to it than that Ardent. Tell me, what troubles you?" Dammit, he was good.

I sighed, I would have to tell him now or he would try and diagnose me himself, "I don't feel like I'm the right person to lead this team. I mean, look what's happened to you guys ever since I've started leading."

He gave off a chuckle and motioned me to walk with him. I obliged as he began to speak, "Do you mean the time we successfully retrieved a SPARTAN from a covenant corvette or the other time, when you saved us from a promethean construct?"

"See that's just it, you wouldn't have been in that situation if not for me."

"That's where you are wrong. You do not give yourself enough credit Ardent, it was our destiny to end up there, there was nothing you could have done that would have led us away from there. And it is your destiny to lead this team. You are doing a well enough job as of now, after all, you committed treason and they did nothing more than signed us up for a competition."

Everything he said was true, and there was no way I could argue with him, he was too damn good at this. I felt a smile creep back onto my face and I shook my head with a chuckle, "Thank you, Crow. You really are amazing you know that?"

He chuckled and sighed, "You are very welcome Ardent, I'm here anytime."

It had been longer than I though apparently because as soon as I looked ahead we were stepping into the war games. Everyone was suiting up in their training armor, nowhere near as heavy and only compatible with the war games simulators, me and Crow walked over to ours respectively and suited up as well. Each of us latching up the clasps on the back of the the carbon fiber armor for each other. We each stepped into a pod, turned around, and let the simulator suck us in.

Right after all of the taunting and smack-talk that your ears could handle that is.


	32. Recreation

It had been a week since our return to the Infinity. It was the week of The War Games and my team was ready. Dragon was getting used to the tolerances of his new arm, the speeds, strengths, weaknesses. He was excited about it to say the least, a bit happier about the loss of a limb than most would assume. It was 23:17 and I was still awake, staring up at the ceiling. I remember what happened last time I was up this late, listening to the hum of Infinity's engines. I smiled to myself and felt heat rise to my cheeks thinking back on the time I'd been able to lull the demon to sleep. I could at least dwell on the good memories I had stored somewhere in the very back of my mind.

I sighed and flipped my pillow over again, hoping for any relief from the piece of cardboard I called a pillow. This side was cooler, which was fine. I guess. Tonight was gonna be a rough night. I forced myself to close my eyes and waited for sleep to come.

When sleep did hit me it wasn't for long, at 0400 I was up and out of bed once again, grabbing my small bag of toiletries and heading to the bathroom. Jasmine was already in the bathroom when I walked in. I stood quietly off to the side and watched her run a finger over the deep gouge in her skin that rested smack dab in the middle of her face. She sighed and turned towards me, seeing me stand in the shadow of the doorframe, my sly grin on my face, it obviously startled her because she nearly threw her bag at me.I chuckled and walked up to the small sink and mirror, splashing water into my face and hair before pulling out my toothbrush.

Of course Jasmine chose when I had a toothbrush in my mouth to ask me a question, "Hey, uh, you wanna come to the gym with me?"

"Chure jut gimme a minot." I responded as best I could past the plastic toothbrush and my mouth full of toothpaste.

She chuckled and waited until I was done, both of us walking back to our rooms to grab something other than our underclothes. I slid on a pair of sweatpants and left on my tank top, walking back out to see Jasmine dressed in her same pair of sweatpants with the same old hoodie wrapped around her waist. We both turned the corner out of Crimson Hall and began the long walk to the ship's humongous gym and recreation center. The halls were loosely occupied and when they were it was drowsy marines who snapped awake when either of us passed. When we finally opened the door to the rec center, it was filled with marines and a few SPARTANs as well getting there early morning workouts in. There were marines everywhere pumping iron and gritting teeth, straining to lift weights that were obviously too much for them.

I sighed and headed directly for a treadmill, Jasmine hopping on the one adjacent. I started off at a brisk jog, about 10 miles per hour. Jasmine started hers up and I fell into a rhythm. The thumping of my feet against the fabric of the treadmill lulled me into a state of calming, an easy five minutes passing before I looked to my right, to Jasmine. Her pacing was a bit slower than my own, her strides a bit shorter. I looked at her face and she looked tense, too concentrated. I reached over and lightly pushed her arm. She looked back over to me.

I had a smile plastered on my face as I spoke, "Hey, don't let me beat you now."

She let some of the tension fall from her features as she upped her speed. I in turn, upping my own. Soon it was getting ridiculous with marines crowded around our two treadmills. I was getting tired but there was no way I'd let her beat me now. I looked over and saw her fully smiling, before turning to me and giving a low giggle. I chuckled back before upping my speed again. We were breaking 25 mph each and no sign of stopping soon. I wasn't at a full sprint yet but I was damn near close. Jasmine reached up and bumped her speed up a bit more. I exhaled loudly before bumping my own. I had to start to breathing through my mouth as we broke 30, Jasmine's smaller legs pumping in a furious blur. I smiled pushing through the burn in my legs to gain another 2 mph and break ahead of her, but as always, Jasmine came back with a steely determination. I saw her face, she was panting, her strides getting longer as she reached for every step. I chuckled, knowing I had her purely on leg strength, I was gonna hold this o-

Whoa! I felt my head hit the fabric and send me spiraling backwards into the gym's wall. I blinked slowly a few times, rubbing my head. I must have tripped during those last few moments. I heard Jasmine's treadmill slowly come to a stop before I looked up to see her panting, smiling face. I shook my head and laughed before taking her outstretched hand and letting her pull me to my feet.

"Looks like I win." she boasted as marines gave off a few cheers around us.

"Oh yeah? Well I've gotcha next time." I said, punching her arm awkwardly.

She chuckled grabbing two towels off of the shelf and tossing me one. I wiped my face and armpits, running the length of the cloth down my back before throwing the sweaty towel in the laundry basket nearby. I walked up next to Jasmine as she threw hers down as well. We walked out of the gym, Jasmine throwing taunts at me all the way back to our rooms. I rolled my eyes at some, retaliating with a smile at others, she was cute when she let loose from the shell she'd built around herself.

We had made it back to Crimson hall and we were about to branch off into our personal rooms, but Jasmine called me from behind.

"Hey." she said, a faint little whisper, though warm as it was, I turned to it, "Thank you, for doing that for me."

So she had noticed, not that I'd needed her to to feel good about doing so, "No problem, everyone deserves a little fun every once in awhile, even us." I said with a smile.

Jasmine's eyes widened and she blushed a bit, stuttering for a moment, "W-what do you mean by that?"

I chuckled and shut my door

"Samantha Thomas answer me!" She yelled through my door.

I shook my head changed out of my clothes, a towel wouldn't get the sweat out of my sweats. I threw on a T-shirt and another pair of baggy sweatpants, my favorite thing to wear.

"I'll see you at the War Games party J." I said as I walked by her door.

Her door suddenly slid open to reveal her holding up half of her bra that wasn't strapped on, I looked down and away casually as she spoke, "I'm going with you."

"That's what I said."

"No, I mean I'm going _with_ you."

"Fine, it's a date."

"I-I never said that!"

"Sure you didn't, now finish getting dressed before one of the boys come by."

She blushed again, going cherry red before slamming the door and shoving clothes on as fast as she could slip them over her shoulders.

I chuckled and leant back against the wall nearest her door, thinking about what to wear tonight, though it wasn't as if I had a grand selection of things to pick from.


	33. Something to Think About

My designation? SRH-4972-5

My protocol? Assist SPARTAN units in enemy detection and technological situations.

My name? My name is Sarah.

My name is Sarah. My name is Sarah. My name is Sarah.

I sat alone in a mass of digitalized information, this was not loneliness, this was being truly alone. I hadn't gotten used to this void yet, the lines of blue streaking past the yellow ball of light that was my presence. I couldn't read a single letter on the lines that blazed by but I understood every single pixel. It was a strange feeling to say the least.

I sighed and let my avatar appear in flakes of yellow, my foot landing softly on what acted as the floor of this place. I let out a heavy breath. But I really didn't I was just made to think I did. I wasn't human anymore. I wasn't _me_ anymore. They put in my personality, my memories, they thought I would be a copy, but no I lost something in that transfer over and I still can't figure out what it is.

I sat, cross legged as the ground raised up to accommodate, my body never moving up nor down. A few flicks of the wrist and my memories were displayed before me, or were they even mine anymore?

I swiped my hand in front of me, memories swirling by as if in a video format. I could see videos of deserts most often in the recent memories, long, vast, barren deserts. The barrel of a long surpassed gun appearing in the corner of her eye.

I kept swiping, I had looked over these enough, they weren't the ones I wanted to see. I swiped one long, quick, time and sent the carousel of memories into a blur. I stopped it as soon as the deserts went away and lush, green hills replaced them. A magazine cover house with a lake out front, a long gravel driveway and an old pickup in the garage. A man in a white t-shirt and jeans, wearing nothing other than that but a smile. His eyes were lit up, they would've smiled for him if his mouth wouldn't.

A chuckle from her and him made a smile come to my face, I wish I'd had the life she'd lived, even through all the tragedies. I scrolled a bit more, landing on a small child, a little girl, sitting in her mother's lap. I couldn't help but think of that once being me. I looked down at my own crossed legs and willed myself to remember the weight of the child there, but I couldn't, all I had were these memories to look at. I looked back to meet the eyes of the child, the same bright eyes of her father. I smiled and cocked my head to the side. I was going to just let the memories go from here, I didn't care how long I'd watch, but I'd watch until I couldn't anymore, a day, maybe two in her life.

What seemed like weeks later, but only hours in reality, I'd passed through, well, weeks of memories. I felt the sting of tears, but none fell, I wasn't capable of showing that emotion, would make the SPARTAN units too emotionally unstable they said. I wasn't capable of expressing sadness, agony, hopelessness. I might not have been able to express it, but they sure as hell let me feel it.

I sighed once more but was interrupted by a large blue alert. My services were required again.

I stood, my legs unfolding and extending to touch the ground once more. I stepped forward and tapped on the box, the blue changing to the feed from Sam's helmet, charts and graphs appeared everywhere around me, vital signs, mental health, surroundings, nearby terminals. I had really gotten used to all of this stuff.

"Hey Sam." I said, giving what was a convincingly genuine smile, easily done as an A.I.

"Hey Sarah." She sighed.

Though my protocol directed me to, I didn't need it, I'd grown to like this girl more than anyone else I'd been exposed to since I'd "woken up" in that display case 1 month ago.

"What's wrong?" I asked

"Nothing, it's nothing really."

"Sam, I can almost literally see what you're feeling, so spill."

She sighed again, groaning out the word, "Relationships."

I was surprised for a moment, going silent before chuckling, eventually forming a laugh.

"Shut up."

"Sorry, sorry, it's just of all the things I've been taught to do, they never thought of teaching me about giving relationship advice."

"Figures. Say, Sarah, do you remember a lot about what your… your family was like?"

I was taken aback, stuttering for a moment, "U-uh yeah wh-why?"

"Could you tell me about them. Your mom and dad, that lover you left back in, wherewas it, Georgia?"

"Yeah...yeah, Georgia."

"Could you just, tell me about them."

"I'm sure I could…"

I cleared my throat and took a deep breath. At least I couldn't cry telling the story.

"Well, once upon a time…"

"Oh stop it."

"Just kidding! Alright, alright. Well, I'll start with my parents. Athena and Ben, some of the most amazing people you'll ever meet, they were as sweet as Mom's pecan pie." I chuckled, "My dad was a bit of a hothead, but he was alright. He took me fishing and hunting, drove me around in old cars that he'd blow his money on just cause he knew I liked 'em."

"He sounds amazing, what did your mom and dad do for a living?"

"Well let's see, my mom was a nurse, and Dad worked on hardwood floors, best floorer in the southeast. Or so I thought anyways." We shared a chuckle this time, "And my husband, Cody, man he was something. A bit insane at times, but he was a great dad, and a great husband. He bought us a really nice house, it was white, columns on the front porch, long gravel driveway that kept us away from the road, not that it would have mattered, the road was always empty. We were tucked in a lot surrounded by trees with a little pond out front where Haley learned to fish. She was 6 when I got deployed."

I could see a smile on Sam's face as I ranted, bringing a smile to my own.

"Haley was the sweetest little thing, looked just like her father. She was a daddy's girl. Wanted to do everything he did. Her favorite toy was her bb rifle, would you believe?" I let out what was a more struggled chuckle, electronically though, my voice got fixed before it could reach Sam, making her hear nothing wrong at all, "I always loved to take her horseback riding, she was so good at it for such a small girl. She was beautiful too, long brown hair, got the color from her father, but his hair was anything but straight. I can distinctly remember one time when we had a barbeque and invited over a lot of people. Our dog, Bella, ate anything that anyone dropped as fast as it could hit the ground."

"You sound like you really love them." Came Sam's voice.

I smiled and sniffled a bit, the sound and action blocked by the system.

"Yeah, I did. It's a weird feeling, love. Can't quite understand it."

"I know what you mean."

"I just wish…" I couldn't help it, a tear streaked down my face and I began to cry. I knew she wouldn't see anything, or hear a word, but I could feel the system confusing itself as it deleted my tear. I screamed out, a mechanical, scratching sound while the system tried to stop me, "I just wish I could see them again!"

I tried to cry once more as my voice was slowly being mechanically altered, I could hear the computerized replacement of myself saying goodbye to Sam and popping out of existence.

A last, retched sounding cry escaped my throat before I was reset. I could barely remember the sorrow I'd just felt, but I had a little feeling somewhere in my chest that told me that something was wrong.

I agreed.


	34. I Don't Dance

Tonight was the War Games party, and tomorrow was the war games. My team was expected to be the top tier, but with Majestic, Sigma, Trident, even Zeta could be a problem. I sighed as I crashed face first onto my bed. Why was everything so _hard_?

I rolled myself over, looking at the ceiling as I threw an arm over my face, groaning in frustration. I suppose I'd have to get up now too. I lost myself in my thoughts, the sound of my breathing droning out in the silence of my room. I just laid there, thinking and breathing, until the mechanical sound of a door opening made me tilt my head enough to see the opening.

"Hey, party starts in an hour." came the lightly accented voice.

"Thanks Jordan." I replied.

He cleaned up nice, I had to admit. I didn't recognize him at first, hair slicked back in combination with the military issue dinner dress uniforms. He'd left out the bowtie, good choice in my opinion. I turned my eyes back towards the ceiling as he turned on a heel and walked down the hall, the door sliding back into place. There was no place in a ballroom for me, really no place on a fireteam, not to me anyways.

I forced myself off of the bed and to the closet, where a fresh suit had been delivered at my request, god I'm glad they didn't give me a dress. Or even worse, a skirt. Now i just had to put on this stupid get up, and survive the party for 2 hours. And now not only was it a party, but, I guess, maybe… was it a date now? All of this was too much to think about for me.

I shook my head and turn to grab my toiletries. Everyone else would probably be putting the final touches on their outfits, either that or they were in a rush to get ready. I sighed softly as I headed to the bathroom.

I passed Kat on the way, her hair was pinned back and her uniform was spotless. Only a small portion of the medals she'd earned decorated her chest. Not that any of us could blame her, if we tried to wear all our medals we'd be dragging at least one shoulder on the ground and crawling along. Neither of us spoke to the other, too preoccupied by our thoughts of the coming night.

I looked at Jasmine's room, wondering where she was and what she was doing, but I shook the thought from my head as I entered the bathroom. I would be able to see her later tonight. I looked at the mirror and took the comb from my bathroom kit. I ran it a few times through my hair before deciding that would do. I shook the thoughts fluttering in my head away and washed my face before heading back to my room and stripping.

There were fifteen minutes before the ball began. I might as well go see Jasmine, I wonder what she'd look like when she's scrubbed up and not constantly glaring. I paused at my door and chuckled softly. Well it'd be interesting to see what she's like when she's scrubbed up.

I was still smiling when I walked across the hallway that divided our rooms and knocked on her door. She didn't answer. I waited a minute before knocking again.

"Jasmine, there's ten minutes before the ceremony." There was the sound of movement behind the door but it didn't open. "Jasmine."

"Sam…" Her voice was a lot different than it normally was and I had to hold back the urge to bust her door down. "Would you do me a favour and kick Commander Palmer in the shin for me?" Her voice was soft and she let out a long breath.

"Jasmine what's wrong?"

"Promise me you won't laugh?" Ah, that's what that tone was, she was embarrassed.

"Jasmine, I swear on my rank I won't laugh at you."

There was silence for a few seconds before Jasmine sighed softly. "Okay." Her voice sounded like she was making a mistake, even as the door slid opened.

The first thing I want to know is how can she ask me not to laugh when I can't even speak. Jasmine's black hair was pinned in an intricate design, there was no way she could have done that herself. Was she wearing makeup? Her eyes were gently shadowed and her eyelashes were longer. Her scar was less defined, but it still stood stark across her face. Her lips were painted a dark red that reminded me of blood.

"I refuse to believe that you know how to do makeup that good or your hair like that." She looked startled before she let out a relieved laugh. A small, shy smile curling her lips. Well, maybe I'd be able to see her without the glower more often.

"You're right." She looked away shyly and I felt the urge to grab her and spirit her away. Pushing that urge aside I looked her over. She was in a beautiful crimson dress that matched her lips. "It was Commander Palmer's idea to have at least one girl from every squad in a dress. I got the short stick for ours."

She shifted under my gaze and I realised I was staring. "Jasmine." My voice was serious and she looked up at me, I could see the worry in her multicolored eyes and I hesitated slightly before placing my hand on her cheek. "You are beautiful, and I could never laugh at you."

She relaxed a little, her lips slightly parting and it took everything I had not to kiss her in that moment. I sent her a small smile and remove my hand from her cheek. She looked disappointed as my hand left her cheek but I grabbed her hand instead. "Come on, we're late, and it's time for a stir to be made at the ball." I winked at her and she blushed faintly.

"My lady." I bowed to her playfully and she sent me a glare. So much for not glowering.

"Don't do that." She's so cute when she's embarrassed. I chuckled softly and held my arm out to her. Her hand was soft and looked very small as she took my arm. The hallways were a lot more empty than normal, but were still busy. Marines and engineers were still moving about, making sure the ship ran smoothly or moving from post to post. The sight of two dressed up SPARTANs was enough to stop most of them. Jasmine was receiving a lot of looks from stunned soldiers and crewmen.

I couldn't really blame them, but still, Jasmine looked uncomfortable with all the attention she was receiving. I twisted slightly and sent a glare their way. They all quickly went about their business. Jasmine lightly gripped my forearm in thanks and I smiled at her.

We reached the ballroom, luckily we were only a few minutes late. We managed to slip in without causing a stir and I was able to look over every other female SPARTAN wearing a dress. I smirked as I looked at Tedra. She was dressed in a sky blue dress and was talking with a naval commander. She had a few medals pinned to her front, drink in her hand, though I couldn't tell if it was alcoholic or not.

There were a few more SPARTANs littered around the room, one or two girls from every team in a dress. I turned to Jasmine and smiled. "You really did get the short stick. But everyone else got a shorter one because no one looks as good as you do."

I watched her face turn crimson and she looked straight down. I laughed softly and shook my head. "Red is your colour." She looked up, the red fading from her cheeks. I opened my mouth to say more when Palmer stepped on stage and everyone went quiet.

"Welcome, Ladies, gentlemen, Officers and SPARTANs. As you all know, tomorrow the selected SPARTAN teams will be sent into the war simulator to survive against the wild and each other. The last remaining team at the end of the week is crowned victor of this year's War Games." There was polite clapping and that seemed to be it for the moment. The music started again and people were lead onto the dance floor. Servers weaved their way in and out of small groups of people.

I looked at Jasmine, she seemed to be deep in her thoughts as she looked at the ground. I wondered what she was thinking before I blinked. Palmer was signalling me over. I hesitated and Jasmine looked up. She raised her brow before she shrugs slightly.

"I'll be here, then I'm going to get out of this gown as soon as possible." I chuckled softly and left her side. Heading over to Palmer, I noticed from the corner of my eye a woman heading over to Jasmine.

"Sam, good, now that you're here. I'm sure you all know each other. But for those of you that don't, this is Sam, leader of Fireteam Crimson; you all know Paul DeMarco, Leader of Fireteam Majestic…" I tuned out what she was saying as I saw Jasmine stumble out of the corner of my eye.

Her eyes were wide with alarm as a body hung from her neck and drew her down. She placed her hands on the figure's arms and blinked at the person. Jasmine was a tiny SPARTAN, but the girl that was currently hugging her and talking in an excited voice that was drawing nearly everyone's attention looked like a child in comparison.

"Jasmine, I missed you so much." Jasmine, unlike the girl clinging to her was aware of the eyes turning to look at the display. She spoke too softly to be heard and the girl looked around sheepishly.

She lowered her voice and tugged on Jasmine's arm, Jasmine looked like she was protesting before she was pulled off.

"Samantha are you listening to me?"

"Don't call me that." I looked back to her and nodded to her question with a small sigh. I knew Jasmine could look after herself, but I still worried about her.

The meeting of team leaders ended shortly after and we were dismissed back to the party. I was pulled into conversation with a captain and politely conversed with him, all the while I was looking around for Jasmine. For a girl in a dark red dress, she was very good at hiding. I made a tiny noise in my throat.

I was about to excuse myself when the captain asked me to wait a moment. There was noises from the stage area and the small band that had been playing was being given new music sheets.

"Care to dance?" I looked back at the captain in surprise and shook my head.

"No thanks, I don't dance." I declined his offer and was about to move away when the girl that had pulled Jasmine away leapt up on stage with a microphone.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Officers, Spartans and fellow crewmen. I have been able to get a very reluctant special guest up here and we would like for you all to relax, even if it is for a few hours while we entertain you!" She sounded overly hyped and excited still. I raised my eyebrow as I looked around for Jasmine again. "Please feel free to use the dance floor for its intended purpose." She chuckled and the band struck up a tune. Well one member anyway. Seated at a piano, delicate hands dancing over the keys, Jasmine sat, her eyes were closed as the other girl began to sing softly.

I blinked blankly as I watched Jasmine, how much free time did that girl have on her hands? The band joined in as the girl came to the song's chorus. It was a dance song, and many people took to the floor. But I was frozen listening to the words.

It may have been a new pop song, but it had a very dark message under the soft vocals and fast beat. There was a short instrumental. Jasmine's hands were resting on the keys but not playing. She took a deep breath and began to sing.

Her voice was firm and confronting, she stood from the piano, voice ringing out and making not only me but others all around the room spellbound. She opened her moments, her voice nearly sad as she let her eyes wander over the crowd. She reached her second verse and the music had nearly stopped as she sung.

I let out a long breath as she sat back at the piano and played a few more keys for the over excited girl. The music picked back up as their voice harmonised and they sung their last lines. I let out a long breath as Jasmine looked to the girl and said something. The audience began to clap, the first stunned onlookers coming back to their senses.

Jasmine looked to the crowd before back to the girl and shook her head before she was once again nearly tackled by the over energetic girl. The look of horror that crossed her face as she spoke quickly said volumes about what the girl was doing to her. Her voice was heard by the microphone by her head.

"Okay! Okay, Jen. I'll sing one more, just don't do that." She sighs heavily and shakes her head, trying to decide on the next song she was to sing while the girl, Jen, leapt around happily.

"I haven't heard you sing in ages, it's really surprising someone as grumpy as you has such a beautiful voice."

"I'm not grumpy." By the tone of her voice most people could be forgiven for mistaking her for grumpy.

"You were like this in training as well. It's nice to know you don't change."

"Jennifer." Her tone was a warning growl and Jennifer paused before looking at the audience sheepishly again. Jasmine let out a long breath and the band turned their music sheets over. She gives them a cue and they start to play. Her voice soon joins the mix, more haunting this time than spellbinding.

Another dark song with a happy beat, knowing Jasmine that wasn't surprising. What was surprising was the fact that she liked music, she looked like she liked it a lot too.

Jasmine had finished singing as I'd stood, dazed by her voice, Jennifer was right, for someone that normally growled her words or didn't speak at all, she could sing beautifully.

How was I meant to take this though? And who was that girl?

As the next song kicked up and Jasmine and Jennifer left the stage, Jasmine nearly scolding the child-like figure, I walked over to them both. Jasmine was too busy looking down at Jennifer and whispering that she didn't notice me until I'd cleared my throat from just in front of her.

She looked up, obviously expecting someone else, the scowl on her face soon changing to a surprised look, forming on o shape with her lips. I smiled back, ignoring the smaller girl's presence.

"I never took you for a singer." At this her face flushed nearly as red as her dress, causing her to look down and place her hands behind her. She nearly looked as childish as Jennifer.

"Hey, come on, let's get one dance in before the night is over." I extended my hand to her, the comment making her look up, face flushing again.

Jennifer suddenly butt into the conversation, "Jasmine, who is this? Hmmmm? Seems she's asking you for a dance." I couldn't help but chuckle as she looked back down, hand slowly finding its way to mine.

My fingers curled around hers as I pulled her towards the dance floor, Jennifer's childish calls echoing behind us, a chuckle emanating from my throat as I drug her through the crowd, the music slowing down as this song faded out and a slow song started in just as my dress shoes touched the floor, turning to face Jasmine as I backed onto the floor.

"I'll lead."

"Do you even know what you're doing?"

"No idea." And I did, It's just much more fun to watch people act surprised afterwards.

I pulled on her hand, drawing her closer as my hand wrapped around her waist, the other moving both our hands down to about shoulder height, my hand twisting over to interlace our fingers. With all this she let out a squeak, making me chuckle as I begin to move along to the beat, spinning us both around as Jasmine's feet tried to follow mine, but she just simply didn't know the moves, in all honesty she was doing good for a first time.

About halfway through our dance the doors opened once more and a nervous marine cried out, "Admiral on deck!"

On instinct we all turned to face the general direction, at full attention, Lasky's "At ease." the only thing to change the room, music still playing in the background as he walked through the crowd, smirking and shaking his head. He seemed to know where he was going as well.

The crowd separated as he walked by, letting him through until Palmer stood, all the way at the back of the crowd. She'd definitely been a wallflower there for a while.

"Commander Palmer."

"Sir."

He smiled and sighed looking at all the eyes on the room on him, sticking out his hand, "Would you like to dance?"

A hush fell over the room, everyone seemingly awaiting her answer, and after about ten seconds she broke character, sighed, and smiled, taking his hand.

The room erupted in cheers and claps, Lasky laughing alongside Palmer as he drug her to the dance floor. Seems that seeing the commanding officers be a bit more… human. Was a popular sight among the crew. Even me and Jasmine clapped, me eyes turning to Jasmine before I turned and dragged her from the crowd, from the dance floor, from the ball itself. I dragged her all the way back to our rooms on Crimson hall and huffed.

"Thank God, I couldn't wait to get out of there." Jasmine pulled at the strap on her dress to emphasize her point.

"Well, we're out of there. And more importantly. We're alone." I said with a smirk.

"W-What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, obviously nervous as I pushed off of the side of the hallway I had been leaning against, taking about two steps toward her and running a thumb over her cheek.

I took a deep breath and took one more step, forcing her back to the wall, her face flushed red and breath hot. I swallowed once and leaned down to lock our lips, Jasmine's hands gripping at the collar of my uniform, pulling me closer to her. My hands moved from the wall by her head to beneath her thighs, pulling her up to my height, her legs wrapping around my hips of her own accord as her back was pushed to the wall.

I have a feeling that tomorrow's War Games will be a lot easier than originally expected.


End file.
